by Vice President Kamala Harris went to the US-Mexico border shortly after she and President Biden took office, even though just weeks earlier she had characterized those visits as empty politics. President Barack Obama also toured the border during his time in the White House, although he came to view the trips as little more than photo ops.
Donald J. Trump used the border when he was president to galvanize support for his anti-immigration policies, even signing his name on his “big, beautiful wall” with a Sharpie pen.
As the immigration debate becomes increasingly polarized, a trip along the 2,000-mile border has become required political theater for leaders who want to show they care about immigration. Images of the border – the wall, Border Patrol agents, overcrowded detention centers – serve as a powerful backdrop to draw attention to the crisis or, increasingly, to exploit the issue to attack the political opponents.
On Thursday, both factors will be in play when President Biden and Trump make dueling trips to the US-Mexico border.
Trump will travel to Eagle Pass, Texas, where he will speak about crimes committed by migrants and blame Biden for the increase in border crossings. Biden, more than 300 miles away in Brownsville, plans to speak with border agents and denounce House Republicans who followed Trump’s lead and thwarted a bipartisan border bill that would have cracked down on immigration. illegal.
“It’s a relatively new phenomenon, where a lot of importance is placed on the border,” said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian. “As long as this remains an issue, we are going to have presidents who are going to make a political point or, if they don’t, they will be pressured to do so.”
Immigration has become one of Biden’s biggest policy responsibilities as millions of immigrants overwhelm an underfunded and under-resourced system, something Republicans like Trump are eager to highlight. A Gallup poll released Tuesday found that Americans are more likely to name immigration as the country’s most important issue.
“This is a Hail Mary from Biden,” said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the main union for Border Patrol agents. Judd, a longtime supporter of Trump, will join the former president in Eagle Pass on Thursday. Still, he said, he was in favor of the border bill in Congress that Biden supported and Trump opposed.
Immigration is at the center of Trump’s presidential bid and many Republicans, especially in the House, would be reluctant to give Biden a victory in an election year on an issue that has given them a powerful line of criticism toward whites. Home.
Border politics were not always so divisive. In 1971, Pat Nixon, then first lady, made headlines when she greeted Mexican children and complained about fences while visiting a park along the border in San Diego.
Decades later, President George W. Bush traveled to a Border Patrol post in New Mexico to drum up support for his attempt to overhaul the country’s immigration policy. While the Senate at the time supported a bill that included a path to eventual citizenship for many illegal immigrants, the House emphasized the need for border security.
Obama faced sharper divisions. In 2011, he gave a speech in El Paso, within sight of the border, to push legalization laws, in a nod to the Latino voters who would be crucial in the 2012 elections. But in 2014, when a record number of minors did not accompanied crossed the border, Obama faced incessant calls to visit the border, which he dismissed.
“I’m not interested in photographs,” Obama said.
Mr. Trump was. He visited the border several times during his presidency and might have gone more if not for the pandemic.
Almost as soon as Biden took office, he and Harris faced demands from Republicans who said they should visit the border and see the crisis for themselves. Both have made the trip to El Paso; Harris in June 2021 and Biden in January 2023.
Both have also faced criticism. Republicans criticized Harris for going to El Paso instead of the lower Rio Grande Valley, considered the epicenter of the migration surge. Progressive Democrats said Biden should have spoken directly to immigrants.
Gil Kerlikowske, Customs and Border Protection commissioner during the Obama administration, said presidents and other top officials can demonstrate that they prioritize the border by visiting it. But he also acknowledged that such visits may have more political purposes.
“It’s very politically sensitive right now,” Kerlikowske said. “For them to come and see the work and the difficulties that Customs and Border Protection faces particularly at the border tells them that this will be, if not number one, certainly one or two on the issues of this presidential election cycle. “
