"This is like a war. It’s a military operation... The United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime. It’s a new form of vicious violation to our country."
That was former President Trump on current President Biden's handling of the crisis that is a catastrophe at the U.S. Southern Border Thursday after making remarks in Eagle Pass, Texas after a visit to the border town.
Most of the American people certainly agree with the former president. Per Gallup, just 28 percent approve of Biden's handling of immigration while 38 percent approve of his job performance overall. Note: No incumbent president has ever won reelection while polling under 40 percent.
Seeing these numbers and upon learning his all-but-certain opponent in the general election was visiting the border on Thursday, Biden's team hastily announced earlier this week that he would be making a trip there as well, marking only the second visit to said border during his presidency despite it being a huge national security and humanitarian issue.
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The president's visit comes almost two weeks after Biden finally decided to visit East Palestine, Ohio, 378 days after a toxic train derailment that made some residents sick while seeing their property values plummet. In contrast, Trump visited the area not long after the accident more than a year ago on Feb 22, 2023.
So in an effort to go on the offensive, Biden attempted to blame Trump for the current crisis during scripted remarks in Brownsville on Thursday afternoon.
BIDEN, DURING VISIT TO OVERWHELMED BORDER, URGES REPUBLCIANS TO BACK SENATE BILL
"Here’s what I would say to Mr. Trump. Instead of playing politics with the issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block the bill, join me or I’ll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill."
But the so-called bipartisan bill that was ultimately killed in the Senate was as limp as your average dishrag. It contained nothing regarding resumption of building a border wall (Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office halting all construction). The bill didn't reinstate Trump's successful Remain in Mexico policy (something else Biden eliminated via executive order). And it also didn't end the practice of Catch and Release. Without those three cornerstones, nothing truly of note will change at the border.
One question voters should be asking (among many) is this: As mentioned, Biden visited Brownsville, which is currently seeing almost no illegal crossings (just six people crossed into the country illegally on Wednesday there, for example, according to border officials) while Trump went to Eagle Pass, where there were more than 2,000 apprehensions since Feb. 24 alone, per CBP. The crisis is so bad that first responders in Eagle Pass have applied for a grant to pay for mental health services due to all of those who have died trying to cross the Rio Grande river, including children.
Perhaps another reason why Biden suddenly got the urge to visit the border, besides not allowing Trump to continue to own the narrative and issue, is because of the murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Reilly. The 22-year-old was murdered by a Venezuelan man who entered the country illegally two years ago during a time the Biden administration kept insisting the border was secure. Police say the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
The suspect, Jose Ibarra, had been arrested and released before in New York. Biden has yet to comment on the killing, nor has he spoken to the family, according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Reilly's death put an innocent face on the true threat of mass illegal immigration and cuts across party lines in the process. The numbers were already changing in the minds of American voters, as Gallup found in the aforementioned poll that 55 percent of those surveyed said that "large numbers of immigrants entering the United States illegally" are a critical threat to U.S. vital interests. That's up 8 percentage points in just the past year alone.
According to the Department of Homeland Security during the last two fiscal years under Biden, 169 individuals on the watchlist were arrested in FY2023 and 98 were arrested in FY2022. And those are the ones officials apprehended. One can only imagine how many trained and skilled terrorists entered the U.S. undetected.
Overall, also according to Gallup this week, immigration is the most important problem facing the country today, with 28 percent saying they believe it is. Coming in second is the government, followed by the economy, inflation, and poverty/homelessness. If those remain the top issues facing the country on Election Day, all unfavorable to Biden, we could be looking at an Electoral Landslide, at least if Trump isn't convicted before Nov. 5.
Add it all up, and more than 7.2 million people have been apprehended entering the U.S. illegally over the past two years. That's more than the total population of 35 U.S. states and is equivalent to two years of total births in the country. For context, approximately 400,000 people were apprehended at the border during Trump's final year in office.
Leaders lead. But on Thursday, Joe Biden, the current Commander-in-Chief, followed former President Trump to the border after ignoring the chaos for three years.
And unless Biden can reverse the perception this is a crisis of his own making, an almost-impossible sell, we may be looking at the first one-term Democratic president since Jimmy Carter.
