SAN ANTONIO — Former president and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump visited Eagle Pass on Thursday afternoon to highlight the growing concern over continuing border issues, while President Joe Biden met with officials 300 miles away.
Trump began by referring to how he believes the governors of Arizona and California haven't done anything to alleviate issues exacerbated by what he referred to as "a Biden invasion." By comparison, he said, Gov. Greg Abbott has gone above and beyond to secure Texas.
Trump went on to thank several people for their contributions in dealing with border issues, including Major General Thomas Suelzer of the National Guard, who Trump says understands what he categorized as a "war."
Trump commented that Abbott "really stepped up," saying he was proud to have received the Texas governor's endorsement as the road to a rematch of the 2020 presidential election grows increasingly clear.
Trump then introduced Brandon Judd, a Border Patrol agent who also serves as president of the National Border Patrol Council.
"Your agents, my agents, they're mad as hell," Judd said while addressing both Trump and media on the scene. "(It's) absolutely mad that President Biden went to Brownsville, Texas, rather than go to Arizona, rather than go to San Diego, California, rather than coming to Eagle Pass, Texas, which has been the epicenter."
Judd, in a show of support for Trump-era immigration policies, emphasize how Abbott can employ those policies to "secure the epicenter of the border crisis." Since 2022, Abbott's policy of border security has been largely defined by the costly and controversial Operation Lone Star.
Judd added that law enforcement patrolling the border are "pissed."
"Border Patrol agents are upset that we cannot get the proper policy that is necessary to protect human life, to protect American citizens, to protect the people that are crossing the border illegally," Judd said. "Thank goodness we have a governor like Governor Abbot. Thank goodness we have someone willing to run for President of the United States."
Trump continued to attack Biden, returning to a series of refrains he used while on the campaign trail ahead of the 2020 election and claiming he's "the worst president our country's ever had" who has allowed "thousands and thousands of people to come over" from various countries.
According to the Pew Research Center, which gathered data from government statistics for a February report, migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have been higher during Biden's presidency compared to Trump's, including a monthly-record 249,735 encounters in December. The center also reported "a sharp increase in encounters with citizens of China."
Trump equated the increase in encounters as "being overrun" by migrant crime, and made the claim that the biggest risk are the coming months before Election Day. In January, however, authorities reported that migrant encounters plummeted from a record-high in December to the third-lowest number of Biden's presidency in January.
The former president went on to claim that individuals who entered into the U.S. by illegal means were responsible for thousands of crimes, but researchers have found no clear connection between immigration and crime. Trump also brought bring up the killing of a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia. The suspect is a Venezuelan migrant.
Still, Trump praised Abbott and Texas law enforcement for doing "an incredible job" securing the border.
Trump and Abbott both listed the policies Trump had in place during his administration that they say helped secure the borer, including his Remain in Mexico and Catch and Release policies.
"If you broke the law or if we caught you we deported you," Trump said.
Abbott also commented on Biden's same-day visit to Brownsville, saying the president was ignoring real problems at the border.
"Biden does not care about either Texas or the border and what's going on," Abbott said. "The United States is dealing with more deadly consequences then we have in my entire lifetime because of Joe Biden's policies on the border."
According to an AP-NORC poll in January, the share of voters concerned about immigration rose to 35% from 27% last year. Fifty-five percent of Republicans say the government needs to focus on immigration in 2024, while 22% of Democrats listed immigration as a priority. That’s up from 45% and 14%, respectively, from December 2022.
Trump landed to cheers from a crowd gathered at the small airport who held signs that read: “Trump 2024.” Some yelled, “Way to go, Trump.” He chatted with supporters for a few minutes before getting into his waiting SUV.
Trump has laid out updated immigration proposals that would mark a dramatic escalation of the approach he used in office and that drew alarms from civil rights activists and numerous court challenges.
Some of those include reviving and expanding his controversial travel ban, imposing "ideological screening” for migrants, terminating all work permits and cutting off funding for shelter and transportation for people who are in the country illegally.
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