Biden and Trump face off on the border in Texas today : NPR

President Biden urges Congress to pass the Senate-negotiated bipartisan deal on border security.

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President Biden urges Congress to pass the Senate-negotiated bipartisan deal on border security.

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President Biden is squaring off against former President Donald Trump on Thursday on one of the issues expected to dominate the 2024 presidential election: immigration.

Both Biden and Trump are visiting Texas border communities that have been grappling with large numbers of migrants seeking asylum. Biden will head to Brownsville, and Trump to Eagle Pass.

It’s only the second time during his presidency that Biden has been to the border. The trip comes as Biden goes on the offensive, trying to turn the tables on an issue that has been a liability for him.

Only 29% of respondents in a recent Newsportu/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll said they approve of the way Biden is handling immigration.

A section of border fence in Brownsville, Texas, as seen on Nov. 8, 2023. Biden is visiting the community on Thursday to meet border patrol agents and local officials.

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A section of border fence in Brownsville, Texas, as seen on Nov. 8, 2023. Biden is visiting the community on Thursday to meet border patrol agents and local officials.

Valerie Gonzalez/AP

Biden is trying to flip the script on this issue

Biden will meet with Border Patrol agents and local leaders in Brownsville as he blames House Republicans for failing to pass border funding and policy changes that the community has been seeking.

Biden has said Trump saw a political advantage for his party to block bipartisan legislation that would have tightened rules for asylum, expanded detention facilities and provided more money to hire more border agents. Had the legislation passed, it would have helped Biden show he was willing to get tough on the issue.

“Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends,” Biden said after Republicans kept the bill from getting a Senate vote.

Concertina wire stretches through Shelby Park on Feb. 4, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas.

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Concertina wire stretches through Shelby Park on Feb. 4, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas.

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Trump sees the border as a winning issue for him

Trump — the front-runner in the race to be the Republican nominee in November — will visit Eagle Pass, a community where the state government has been trying to play a bigger role in enforcement.

He’s expected to highlight recent crimes committed by migrants in major cities. Online, Trump and his allies have repeatedly blamed Biden for the death of a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia. An undocumented Venezuelan immigrant has been arrested for the crime.

“We must rid ourselves of this ridiculous open border, right now,” Trump wrote this week on his Truth Social platform.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland.

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Former President Donald Trump speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Trump’s trip was announced first. His team accused Biden of chasing him to the border and said his strategy would backfire.

“The American people know the truth — President Trump’s policies created the most secure border in American history, and it was Joe Biden who reversed them,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said in a statement.

The stakes for both leaders are high

Polls show a majority of Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats on securing the border.

A new Monmouth University poll found that 53% of respondents support building a border wall, the first time a majority of Americans have backed the proposal since Trump launched his first presidential campaign.

As he did in his first run for office, Trump has made border security a central theme for 2024. He has promised to launch the largest domestic deportation operation in American history if elected.

Democrats saw an opening in a New York special election

But Democrats see an opportunity to counter a prevailing narrative that they are soft on border security while Republicans are viewed as hawkish.

House Democrat Tom Suozzi won his special election in New York earlier this month by campaigning hard on Republicans spoiling the bipartisan border bill.

Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic pollster for the political strategy group, Blueprint, said that showed it’s possible for Democrats to paint Republicans as “unserious about border security.”

He said it’s not unlike the opportunity Democrats seized to effectively campaign against Republicans after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“We now have proof-positive in this latest election that Republicans are out over their skis again on immigration. They don’t know what to do,” Roth Smith said. “And they’ve handed Democrats something they can run on for months or maybe years.”