Biden, Trump to make US-Mexico border stops Thursday as migrant crisis roils election

President Biden will visit the southern border on Thursday – the same day former President Trump is also scheduled to go.

Biden will travel to Brownsville, Texas to meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, and local leaders, according to a White House official. 

That same day, Trump is delivering remarks in Eagle Pass, Texas, Fox News has previously confirmed. 

Brownsville and Eagle Pass are about 325 miles, or about a 5-hour-20 minute drive, apart. 

Biden is expected to use his trip to “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 White House official said. “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.” 

According to a Fox News analysis published last week, nearly 7.3 million migrants are known to have illegally crossed the southwest border since Biden took office. 

7.2M ILLEGALS ENTERED THE US UNDER BIDEN ADMIN, AN AMOUNT GREATER THAN POPULATION OF 36 STATES

That number is greater than the population of 36 individual states. It comes from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which has already reported 961,537 border encounters in the current fiscal year, which runs from October through September. If the current pace of illegal immigration does not slow down, fiscal year 2024 will break last year’s record of 2,475,669 southwest border encounters — a number that by itself exceeds the population of New Mexico, a border state. 

The total number of southwest land border encounters since Biden assumed office in 2021 is 7,298,486, CBP data shows. 

Eagle Pass has been the center of an ongoing conflict and court battle between Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration. 

BORDER PATROL UNION RIPS BIDEN OVER BORDER CRISIS: ‘YOU OWN THIS CATASTROPHIC DISASTER’

The Justice Department last month asked the Supreme Court to order Texas to allow Border Patrol agents back into Shelby Park in Eagle Pass. Texas National Guard troops blocked federal agents from entering the park and have erected razor wire and shipping containers to discourage migrants from crossing the border there illegally. 

Amid the standoff, the Department of Homeland Security has written to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton demanding full access to the park, especially in emergency scenarios. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News this month the majority of illegal crossings are shifting away from Texas to Arizona and California, where there’s less deterrence. 

Fox News’ Kellianne Jones, Bill Melugin and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.