President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump might both be visiting the southern border on Thursday, but the locations each have chosen to visit are quite revealing.
Biden is set to visit the border town of Brownsville, Texas (something most of the residents aren’t thrilled about), while Trump plans to visit Eagle Pass Station.
What’s the difference between these two locales?
Well, as Fox News reported in a segment RNC Research posted to the social media platform X, Eagle Pass apprehends more illegal immigrants in a day than Brownsville does in a week.
Border Patrol agents say they catch more illegal immigrants crossing near Eagle Pass (where President Trump will visit) in one day than they do in Brownsville (where Biden will visit) in a WEEK. pic.twitter.com/Azeogx5dc0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 28, 2024
Indeed, according to another Fox report on these two presidential visits, illegal immigrant activity in Brownsville is almost “nonexistent,” with only 12 apprehensions recorded on Monday.
By contrast, Eagle Pass easily may have the most apprehensions per week of any spot on the border, reporting 511 apprehensions on Monday.
With this in mind, on thing is clear.
Have Biden’s immigration policies failed Americans?
As with his visit to El Paso in January of 2023, a town that, while previously overrun with immigrants, had long ceased to have the same issues by the time Biden came here, Biden or his handlers clearly want to make the border crisis look better than it is.
It makes complete sense that he wouldn’t want to visit one of the worst parts of the border.
Since it’s become clear in the polling that the immigration crisis is one of the most important issues for voters, Biden wants to appear like he’s doing something, but he doesn’t want it to look too bad, otherwise all the criticism will fall back on him.
Trump, by contrast, wants to give the country an honest look at the extent of the immigration crisis.
He’s traveling to one of the worst spots on the border in an effort to show that he not only cares about the border, but also, presumably, to remind Americans of how much better the crisis was handled under his presidency, and how he’ll move to resume that work.
Again, Biden’s visit is much more of a clumsy PR move, a “dog and pony show” as one Brownsville resident derisively called it.
He’s only going under political pressure.
At the same time though, he doesn’t want people paying too much attention.
Because, as we all know, more people paying attention to the border crisis means more people blaming Biden for it.
