If voters wanted an early taste of the likely election rematch between President Biden and Donald Trump, they need not look further than the showdown at the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday. During rival trips to Texas 325 miles apart, Biden and Trump sparred in remarks aired within a half hour of each other. They both took walks along parts of the border in Texas. They took turns blaming each other in an extraordinary clash over surging migration eight months after the 2024 presidential election. Perhaps most memorably, Biden challenged Trump to get behind border legislation the former president helped kill. Biden used his visit to Brownsville to blame congressional Republicans for inaction on the border after they blocked legislation in the Senate that would have created some of the most aggressive border restrictions in a generation, USA Today reports. Republicans took their cues from Trump, who urged the defeat of the bill, denying Biden a major political win in an election year.
The bill would establish a new “border emergency authority,” allowing the president temporarily to prohibit people from seeking asylum in the U.S. when daily border crossings exceed a daily average of 4,000 in any one-week period. Among other provisions, the bill would also fund 100 new inspection machines to detect fentanyl at the border, 1,500 Border Patrol agents and customs officers, and 4.300 new asylum officers to speed up the review of asylum claims. Biden called on congressional Republicans to "show a little spine" and reconsider the legislation. "Those senators who oppose it need to set politics aside and pass it on merit, not on whether it's going to benefit one party or benefit the other party," Biden said. The visits made for a striking split screen for a likely election rematch between Biden and Trump, who visited Eagle Pass, Tex. While Biden talked about bipartisanship, Trump stuck to his hardline immigration pitch that helped fuel his entry into national politics. Trump promised the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants if he returns to the White House.