Ahead of President Biden’s visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, the White House introduced a new term to refer to illegal immigrants arriving in Mexico as “newcomers.”
Biden will visit Brownsville, Texas, to reassure voters dissatisfied with the handling of the border crisis. Republicans have accused the Biden administration of weak enforcement of immigration laws, with recent polls showing only 26% of Americans approve of the president’s efforts on immigration.
The language used by the White House to describe the crisis may not allay voters’ concerns. In a fact sheet distributed by the White House press office in support of the bipartisan border deal approved by Biden, officials said the bill would include “cities and cities that provide critical services to newcomers. It noted that it included $1.4 billion to the state.
Biden’s border visit arrives in one of the least traveled towns, while Trump heads into a densely populated area
Biden will visit Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday to defend his administration’s border policies. (Yuri Gripas/Abaka/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Calling illegal immigrants “newcomers” suggests equal status with immigrants who came to the United States legally, prompting immediate condemnation from House Republicans.
“President Biden now refers to illegal immigrants as ‘newcomers.’ Joe Biden is not serious about stopping illegal immigration into the United States. This is a planned disaster,” the House Republican Conference said. Posted on X.
White House officials have repeatedly hit back at Republican critics in recent weeks, insisting that if Republican lawmakers were serious about border security, they would support the bipartisan bill backed by Biden.
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Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Eagle Pass on the same day that Biden visits Brownsville for a competing event on immigration. (John Moore/Getty Images)
The border bill negotiated in the Senate would increase Border Patrol staffing, tighten asylum rules, expand law enforcement authority to combat fentanyl smuggling, and provide funding to cities and states that accept asylum seekers. The content is to increase the number of employees.
Republicans argued the bill would normalize high levels of illegal immigration and would do little to stop people and drugs from crossing the border.
“We’ve been working to make sure we address our broken immigration system, and Republicans are standing in the way. They’re standing in the way,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on CNN Thursday. “I’m doing it,” he said.
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“And look, this is a serious problem, that’s why the president is going to the border. The president was at the border in El Paso a year ago, he was visiting the border in January 2023. We have introduced comprehensive, comprehensive immigration controls ‘on day one,’ she added.
Biden chose Brownsville for his border visit because it is an area of Texas with relatively few migrant crossings.
According to CBP data, there were just 46 encounters with migrants in Brownsville over the past five days, compared to 2,106 in Eagle Pass. The former had an average of 17 migrant encounters per day in February, while the latter had an average of 462.
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Brownsville is part of CBP’s Rio Grande Valley District, which has had 87,426 migrant encounters so far in fiscal year 2024. The Del Rio neighborhood, which includes Eagle Pass, has had 182,077 migrant encounters, but even that is far fewer than the busiest surrounding neighborhoods. Tucson, Arizona witnessed 297,380 encounters.
Former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, is scheduled to visit Eagle Pass on Thursday in a rival visit. Eagle Pass is one of the busiest areas in Texas and is the center of a battle between Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over enforcement of immigration laws. .
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
