Biden, Trump book dueling border visits for Thursday

WASHINGTON — President Biden announced Monday that he will visit the US-Mexico border region on Thursday after former President Donald Trump arranged his own trip there on the same day to slam Biden’s policies.

Biden, 81, made the first known visit of his career to the border in January of last year after sustained criticism from Republicans over his handling of a mounting illegal immigration crisis.

The latest trip comes as Democrats attempt to flip the political script by arguing that Republicans are to blame for the crisis after they blocked bipartisan legislation to grant Biden emergency powers to stem the flow of illegal immigrants — power that Republicans say he already has.

Biden “will travel to Brownsville, Texas to meet with US Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, and local leaders,” a White House official said.

“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,” the official added.

“He will reiterate his calls for Congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology and more.”

Trump had planned to visit Eagle Pass, Texas, since last week, CNN reported at the time.

The former president similarly announced a visit to the border in June 2021 — shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden tapped to lead efforts to reduce illegal immigration, booked her own visit there. Trump claimed credit for her hastily announced plans.

A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the former president’s plans.

The dueling visits come as immigration remains one of the top issues in polling ahead of the anticipated rematch between Biden and Trump, 77, in the November election.

A Gallup poll last month found that immigration was the second most common answer when Americans were asked to name the most important problem facing the US — with 20% naming that issue while 21% cited poor national leadership and 13% identified inflation and high costs of living.

The Biden-Trump visits also follow the Friday arrest of illegal immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra of Venezuela for allegedly killing 22-year-old Augusta University junior Laken Riley. Ibarra, 26, allegedly crossed the US-Mexico border illegally near El Paso in September before being released into the US.

Republicans blame the border crisis on Biden’s policies.

The president halted construction of Trump’s US-Mexico border and scrapped the 45th president’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required most asylum seekers claiming persecution in their homelands to await US court decisions on their claims while residing in Mexico.

The migrant crisis has continued to grow throughout Biden’s three years in office.

December set an all-time monthly record with more than 302,000 people arrested for illegally entering the US from Mexico — equivalent to the populations of Pittsburgh or Newark.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in January that more than 85% of those detained for illegally crossing the border were being released into the US — up from 71% in October and 74% in November.

Asylum seekers are entitled to work permits after an initial 180-day wait period. A massive asylum processing backlog means that an actual adjudication of their claims could take nearly a decade.

A record of about 2.5 million people — nearly the population of Chicago — were apprehended after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, in addition to an estimated 670,000 “gotaways” who evaded authorities.

Fiscal 2022 set the previous record with nearly 2.4 million apprehensions along the border — up from 1.7 million in fiscal 2021, which at the time had been considered by Republicans as an urgent crisis.

The House of Representatives impeached Mayorkas on Feb. 13 for allegedly failing to enforce the country’s laws and for allegedly misrepresenting the degree of border security in congressional testimony. His Senate trial could begin as early as Wednesday.