Former President Donald Trump is en route to the US-Mexico border Wednesday morning — where he is expected to discuss President Biden’s immigration policies and the record migration surges overwhelming the region.
The 45th president will visit the border in the early afternoon, after taking part in a roundtable discussion on the matter at the Texas Department of Public Safety alongside Gov. Greg Abbott and nearly two dozen House Republicans led by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
The group will gather in La Joya, Texas, located in the Rio Grande Valley. The area, represented by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), has been particularly hard-hit by the migrant crisis.
Speaking to The Post, one of a select group of outlets invited on the trip, late Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) expressed his concern that “the systems that work to save lives and save costs, particularly to the Border Patrol, have been abandoned and lay rusting at the border.”
After arriving in South Texas late Tuesday, the group of reporters and House lawmakers, all members of the Republican Study Committee, were taken to a border crossing area in the middle of the night.
The short trip to the section of land, led by two journalists who said they had been to the border repeatedly, resulted in multiple migrant sightings.
The Post witnessed three men being handcuffed and detained by border agents, as well as multiple buses that were used to take migrant families to nearby holding facilities.
The Biden administration’s undoing of Trump’s border policies has prompted a flood of Central American and Mexican illegal migrants at the US border, including thousands of unescorted children.
Central Americans looking for refuge from the Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — have taken these policy moves, as well as the overwhelmingly more welcoming tone from Democrats, as a sign that Biden is inviting them to cross the border.
Insisting that the border was not facing a crisis, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in early March that the problems the agency faced should be blamed on the previous administration.
The data, however, overwhelmingly shows that migrants are flooding the border because they believe Biden will welcome them with open arms, with over 170,000 illegal crossings a month.
As the crisis heated up, Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to address the diplomatic measures related to its “root causes.” However, despite intense pressure, she had declined to commit to going to surveil the situation for herself for the first three months as border czar.
Harris eventually agreed to visit last week, after Trump announced his trip for this Wednesday, though she and the White House have denied there was any connection between the scheduling of the two events.
The vice president traveled on Friday to El Paso, Texas, alongside Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), a strong supporter of the Biden administration who represents the area.
Escobar gleefully referred to her community as “the new Ellis Island” and the “capital of the border.”
While Cuellar has spoken out against the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis and repeatedly encouraged Harris to visit the region, Escobar has remained supportive of the party’s policies.
Discussing those policies with reporters at dinner Tuesday evening, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) bemoaned Democrats’ refusal to acknowledge the existence of a crisis, arguing it prevented lawmakers from working toward a solution.
“We first have to admit we have a problem,” the Michigan lawmaker said.
“If we don’t have a crisis at the border, why would we take $2 billion from our COVID-19 relief [package] to pay for the crisis at the border?” she asked, going on to correct herself and call it a “non-crisis.”
“Can someone explain that to me? It’s simple fact, follow the money.”
The reason for this problem, she said, was partisanship.
“[T]he issue is President Trump could have the cure for cancer, and there are people that would not want it because it came from President Trump. That’s what’s happening right now.”
