On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump visited the country's southern border as fellow Republicans continue to criticize President Joe Biden over the rising number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
Trump traveled to an unfinished part of the border wall with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, which was started under Trump's administration but halted when Biden took over the White House in January. Abbott, Trump's ally, has promised to complete the wall construction in his state.
At the event, Trump said his predecessor in the White House dismantled America's border defenses and incited a flow of illegal immigration like the US has never seen. Biden has reversed several of Trump's stringent immigration policies, including his promise to build a border wall and force Mexico to pay for it during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump chastised Biden on "unfinished border"
Per Dallas News, during Trump's administration, he prioritized border security, declaring a state of emergency in 2019 to redirect government funding intended for the military to pay for the border wall. Texas governor faces major problems and needs Trump's support to win next year in a third term. In the two decades since Trump left office, migration has surged historically and violence continues in certain countries.
Trump was able to complete 450 miles of wall, with the final few hundred being built in a rush following his defeat. Biden halted work and returned $2 billion from the Pentagon budget that Trump had diverted. Abbott said two weeks ago that he will continue the project, beginning with $250 million taken from the state jail budget.
Trump stated that he had endorsed Abbott for reelection and that he approves of his unwillingness to watch Biden demolish some of his trademark border initiatives, such as the wall and "Remain in Mexico." He said, "We produced the safest, the best border we've ever had. And now, in a very short period, it's over," LA Times reported.
Abbott, who was Texas' attorney general before becoming governor, is up for reelection next year but is also being considered as a presidential contender in 2024. He spent the first part of the year ranting against Biden's "open-border policies" and attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to visit the Texas border's hardest-hit regions.
The governor claimed Harris was "ignoring the true problem" to the east in Del Rio and the Rio Grande Valley, where migrant arrests have increased when Harris finally visited El Paso last week.
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Biden reversed Trump's border policies
Last month, Border Patrol intercepted 180,034 migrants at the southern border; 40% of whom already crossed the border and were deported under Trump's and Biden's pandemic policy. During Trump's tenure, the greatest monthly number of apprehensions was over 150,000.
In his first days in office, Biden reversed some of Trump's immigration measures, including suspending border wall construction and canceling a program that requires individuals seeking asylum in the United States to wait in Mexico. The end of such restrictions coincided with a large rise in border apprehensions, including a record-breaking number of unaccompanied minors entering the United States in the first half of the year.
Last Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris made her first trip to the border since joining the Biden administration, as per Newsweek via MSN. She spoke with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) leaders as part of her pledge to address the "root causes" that drive people to flee their homes and seek asylum in the United States.
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