Biden is expected to press congressional Republicans to pass a controversial border bill that has already been passed in the Senate. "He will discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades," said an unnamed White House official who spoke with Reuters. Brownsville has been a hotspot for illegal migration and illicit transnational activity, with drug smuggling in broad daylight becoming a regular occurrence. Some have speculated that the decision to have Biden visit the border this week is being done for optics, given that former President Donald Trump is holding an event on the same day about 325 miles away in Eagle Pass, Texas, another border town that has had trouble handling the border crisis. In recent days, the White House has said Biden is considering executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to request asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, a policy reminiscent of Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which drew criticism from Democrats and immigration activists. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says Biden’s plan for executive action is simply “election year gimmicks” designed to shift attention away from policies enacted when he became president, which fueled the crisis. “The president suddenly seems interested in trying to make a change using the legal authority that he claimed until recently didn’t exist,” Johnson said in a statement. The public will not “forget that the president created this catastrophe and, until now, has refused to use his executive power to fix it.” In a statement posted to X last week, Johnson said House Republicans have been warning about the migration crisis since Biden took office, adding that Biden has ignored pleas from Johnson, mayors, governors, and the American people to address the crisis. “Now, in an election year, after the president has surrendered the border to cartels and smugglers, after tens of thousands of Americans have tragically lost their lives due to fentanyl poisoning, after countless unaccompanied minors and young people have been subjected to human trafficking, and after millions of illegal aliens have been scattered by the Biden administration throughout our country — the President suddenly seems interested in trying to make a change using the legal authority that he claimed until recently didn’t exist,” he wrote. “Americans have lost faith in this president and won’t be fooled by election year gimmicks that don’t actually secure the border,” he added.President Joe Biden will visit the U.S. southern border this week, stopping in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday to meet with Border Patrol agents, law enforcement officers, and local officials.
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