Former President Donald Trump gave a wave to migrants through a barbed wire fence at the US-Mexico border during a visit with Texas Governor Greg Abbott where he slammed President Biden’s handling of the border. The ex-commander in chief, who has consistently criticized his successor over the crisis, was at the fence in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday. Trump said Biden had the ‘blood of countless innocent victims’ on his hands, adding: ‘He’s transported columns of fighting men. They look like warriors to me.’
The former president was shown barbed wire along the river by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and spoke to border guards who have been dealing with the surge in crossers – while Biden visited another border site 324 miles away. ‘You’re in a war,’ the 77-year-old Republican frontrunner told frontline agents in Eagle Pass, who have vented their fury at Biden. This is a military operation. We have languages coming into our country that nobody speaks those languages.’ Trump also revealed he had spoken to the parents of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old student jogger murdered in Georgia. An illegal immigrant has been charged with killing her. Trump said her mother and father will ‘never be the same’ and that Biden will ‘never say her name.’
In a piece for DailyMail.com ahead of the trip, Trump wrote how Biden ‘created the illegal migrant invasion’ and stated that he was the only candidate who could stop it. In Eagle Pass several hundred yards along the Rio Grande, on the opposite side, around a dozen Mexicans stood watching the former president. They stood on a raised road above a brightly colored mural, and leaning over a railing to see. Trump then arrived at the spot – Shelby Park, a 47–acre grassy area along the river. The scene that greeted him included four Humvees and a military helicopter in front of dozens of shipping containers used to block migrants from crossing. Some of the shipping containers were stacked on top of each other with razor wire on top of that.
Trump was briefed by Abbott and members of the Texas National Guard. Guardsmen we’re waiting for him when he arrived near a boat ramp that law enforcement uses to access the river. At the boat ramp the body of a drowned migrant was brought ashore yesterday. Trump spent ten minutes at the ramp and was seen shaking his head as he was briefed. Abbott said Biden had ‘lied to America’ about the border, and accused the president of “aiding and abetting illegal entry” and wanting to ‘tear down’ defenses put up by Texas. ‘The United States is being invaded. Joe Biden is not doing his job,’ Abbott said.
![Since park taken over by Texas in January the number of migrants crossing has fallen from thousands a day to ¿six or seven¿ Abbott said, because he put up stronger barriers. ¿This part of the border is sealed,' he said. Meanwhile, Biden toured the border city of Brownsville, Texas, 324 miles along the frontier. At the Trump event Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, said: 'I want you (Trump) to know, your agents, my agents, they're mad as hell. Absolutely mad that President Biden went to Brownsville, Texas, rather than going to Arizona rather than going to San Diego, California, rather than coming to Eagle Pass, Texas, which has been the epicenter.' He added: 'Your agents, they're [expletive].'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/01/08/81858311-0-image-a-45_1709281063238.jpg)
Since park taken over by Texas in January the number of migrants crossing has fallen from thousands a day to ‘six or seven’ Abbott said, because he put up stronger barriers. ‘This part of the border is sealed,’ he said. Meanwhile, Biden toured the border city of Brownsville, Texas, 324 miles along the frontier. At the Trump event Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, said: ‘I want you (Trump) to know, your agents, my agents, they’re mad as hell. Absolutely mad that President Biden went to Brownsville, Texas, rather than going to Arizona rather than going to San Diego, California, rather than coming to Eagle Pass, Texas, which has been the epicenter.’ He added: ‘Your agents, they’re [expletive].’
Biden, 81, met with Border Patrol agents alongside his Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the banks of the Rio Grande at Brownsville. He has been accused of using the trip as a ‘photo op’ for his campaign and is visiting an area where migrant crossings have dropped substantially. DailyMail.com visited the area Biden will tour, and found piles of trash being patrolled by bored border guards. The border visits came as immigration explodes to become the biggest issue in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. A Gallup poll found 28 percent of Americans now believe immigration is the biggest problem facing America, more than cite the economy or inflation.
The figure was a record high since Gallup began polling voters on their views about immigration in 1981. Earlier, Trump accused Biden of allowing a ‘horrible invasion’ of the United States and said ‘migrant crime is taking over America’. He also vowed to carry out the ‘largest domestic deportation operation in American history’ if re-elected. Public concern about illegal immigration is higher under Biden’s presidency than it was under the last two administrations. In the latest Gallup poll the percentage of Americans citing immigration as the biggest problem was up eight points from last month.
Other leading issues were the ‘government’ on 20 percent, the economy on 12 percent and inflation on 11 percent. The 28 percent of voters citing immigration surpassed the previous record of 27 percent in a Gallup poll in July 2019 when there was a surge at the border. She was found dead last week after she didn’t return from a morning run in a wooded area. Jose Ibarra, 26, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, who crossed into the United States in 2022, has been charged with murder. On the eve of his border visit Trump said: ‘This monster should never have been allowed into our country. He was released at Crooked Joe’s orders and set loose into our country. How many more innocent victims must be harmed? How much more innocent blood must be spilled until we stop this horrible, horrible invasion and remove these illegal alien criminals from our country?’
A majority of Americans now support a border wall of the kind Trump proposed in 2016 and started building during his presidency, according to a new survey by Monmouth University . The Del Rio sector of the border, which includes Eagle Pass, was the busiest area for illegal crossings in 2022 and 2023. Across the whole border U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants in December 2023. That was the highest monthly total ever by some distance. In the Del Rio sector there were more than 71,000 arrests in December. Maverick County, which includes Eagle Pass, a city of 30,000 people, is a Democratic stronghold, but Republicans are gaining.
In the 2020 election Trump narrowed the gap to less than 10 points. In January, Texas, Governor Greg Abbott took military control of a 47-acre area of Eagle Pass called Shelby Park. He installed razor wire and shipping container barriers in the park which runs along the Rio Grande. Biden in turn sued Texas, insisting that border control has always fallen under federal jurisdiction. Abbott also intends to spend nearly $200 million building an 80-acre “base camp” in Eagle Pass for National Guard troops . It will house up to 2,300 members of the Texas National Guard and be close to both Shelby Park and the Eagle Pass National Bridge which connects to Mexico.
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