Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden and Donald Trump will both be in Texas today to visit the US border with Mexico, amid public frustration over undocumented migrants crossing into the country. The visits by the current and former president come after a bargain to implement hardline policies meant to keep migrants out coupled with new military aid to Ukraine and Israel fell apart in Congress, leaving the fate of these national security priorities uncertain. Yet all signs point to continued public anxiety about the state of the southern border – this week, Gallup released polling that showed immigration was the top problem on the public’s mind.
Trump has long promised to implement draconian policies against undocumented migrants, and did so during his presidency. Biden, meanwhile, promised a more humane approach, but struggled to deal with a surge in border crossings that began after he took office, and the Republican attacks that accompanied them. We’ll keep an eye out for what the two men may say when they arrive in Texas. The president gets there this afternoon.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, will discuss the secrecy around his hospitalization during an appearance before the House armed services committee beginning at 10am ET.
The race to replace Mitch McConnell as the Senate’s top Republican will start heating up after he yesterday announced plans to step down. Reports say Trump’s allies would like a rightwing alternative to the three senators thought to be in the running – all of whom are named John.
The government probably will not shut down, after congressional leaders released a deal on funding yesterday. This afternoon, the House will vote on a short-term measure to keep the money flowing, while passage of the broader funding compromise is expected in the near future.
Key events
Donald Trump will meanwhile today visit Eagle Pass, Texas, a much smaller city than Brownsville hundreds of miles to its northwest.
The Associated Press has a rundown of how the situation in the two regions’ differ. The biggest takeaway: Biden is visiting an area where border crossings have recently dropped, while Trump will appear in an area where they have surged, and the relatively smaller community has had trouble coping with the new arrivals.
Here’s more:
The Rio Grande Valley, which includes Brownsville, gives Biden a platform where illegal crossings have dropped sharply. It was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings on the U.S. border with Mexico for nine years until Del Rio, which includes Eagle Pass, overtook it in the 2022 budget year.
Del Rio was the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors last year as well, but Tucson, Arizona, began taking the top spot last summer.
Arrests for illegal crossings topped 2 million for the first time in each of the government’s last two budget years, more than double Trump’s peak year of just under 1 million in 2019. But Rio Grande Valley has turned into an exception during recent months as traffic has shifted to Arizona and California for a host of reasons.
The Rio Grande Valley’s 7,340 border arrests in January were its lowest since June 2020, down 90% from more than 81,000 in July 2021, early in Biden’s presidency.
Del Rio has gone the opposite direction, exemplified by the arrival of about 16,000 predominantly Haitian migrants in the border town of Del Rio in September 2021. Eagle Pass, an hour’s drive from Del Rio, was relatively quiet during Trump’s presidency (and before) but became a hot spot under Biden. The Del Rio sector tallied more than 71,000 arrests in December, more than the entire 2019 budget year.
Joe Biden will arrive in Brownsville, Texas, at about 2.30pm ET, and is scheduled to received briefings from federal agents at the border, and then give a speech at 4.30pm.
Ahead of his visit, the White House released a memo arguing for passage of a bipartisan Senate compromise announced earlier this month that would have tightened immigration policy, and also sent military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Republicans ultimately stopped passage of the bill, which the Biden administration is quick to note in its memo:
President Biden has repeatedly said he is willing to work in a bipartisan way to secure the border and fix our broken immigration system. Over several months, his Administration negotiated with a bipartisan group of Senators to release a bill that includes the toughest and fairest reforms to secure the border we have had in decades. It would make our country safer, make our border more secure, and treat people fairly and humanely while preserving legal immigration, consistent with our nation’s values. The bill received support from the Border Patrol Union, the Chamber of Commerce, the South Texas Alliance of Cities, and the Wall Street Journal – but Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans have decided to play politics at the expense of border security.
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden and Donald Trump will both be in Texas today to visit the US border with Mexico, amid public frustration over undocumented migrants crossing into the country. The visits by the current and former president come after a bargain to implement hardline policies meant to keep migrants out coupled with new military aid to Ukraine and Israel fell apart in Congress, leaving the fate of these national security priorities uncertain. Yet all signs point to continued public anxiety about the state of the southern border – this week, Gallup released polling that showed immigration was the top problem on the public’s mind.
Trump has long promised to implement draconian policies against undocumented migrants, and did so during his presidency. Biden, meanwhile, promised a more humane approach, but struggled to deal with a surge in border crossings that began after he took office, and the Republican attacks that accompanied them. We’ll keep an eye out for what the two men may say when they arrive in Texas. The president gets there this afternoon.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, will discuss the secrecy around his hospitalization during an appearance before the House armed services committee beginning at 10am ET.
The race to replace Mitch McConnell as the Senate’s top Republican will start heating up after he yesterday announced plans to step down. Reports say Trump’s allies would like a rightwing alternative to the three senators thought to be in the running – all of whom are named John.
The government probably will not shut down, after congressional leaders released a deal on funding yesterday. This afternoon, the House will vote on a short-term measure to keep the money flowing, while passage of the broader funding compromise is expected in the near future.