BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Border Report) — President Joe Biden on Thursday urged Congress to reform U.S. immigration policies by passing bipartisan border security legislation to boost technology and resources on the border.
Biden landed at Brownsville-South Padre International Airport around 1:30 p.m. CST, in Brownsville, Texas, and spent a couple of hours on the ground talking with law enforcement, and local officials.
He received a 25-minute briefing at the U.S. Border Patrol headquarters from several DHS agencies in front of a litany of TV cameras and local officials and invited guests, to whom he asked various questions.
He seemed particularly disturbed by the amount of fentanyl crossing the border — 8,000 pounds, so far this year — and by how Mexican cartels have far more drones in the air than the U.S. Border Patrol.
“What’s amazing is the lack of technology. The cartels have more drones in the sky than we do,” Biden said.
“Our concern is that they’re vulnerable and they’re out there doing the job to protect this country but with a lack of technology it puts them at risk,” Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez told him about her agents.
“Thank you for all you do. We’re going to get you more resources come hell or high water,” Biden told Chavez.
As Biden spoke on Thursday, behind him were 20 Border Patrol agents lining the room.
“Folks it’s real simple. It’s time to act. … It’s past time to act,” Biden said as he took the podium.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled with Biden and they also met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, as well as officers with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and several local politicians.
This was Biden’s second trip to the Southwest border as president. He visited the West Texas town of El Paso in January 2023.
Throughout his briefing, Biden kept repeating how a Senate bipartisan border bill would improve security concerns at the border and urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to take it to the floor.
He also criticized former President Donald Trump for “coming along and saying, ‘Don’t do that. It will benefit the incumbent,’” Biden said. “Show a little spine and pass the bipartisan border security bill.”
Trump on Thursday also visited the South Texas border, but in the town of Eagle Pass, about 300 miles west of Brownsville.
The Senate bill that Biden is pushing would appropriate over $20 billion for border security and provide what he calls “critical resources” necessary to local law enforcement. That includes more Border Patrol agents, detention beds, immigration judges and asylum officers.
The Senate border bill would add 1,500 new CBP personnel.
DHS says there are currently fewer than 20,000 Border Patrol agents, which despite border encounters increasing 250% during that same period, is the same level of staffing from four years ago.
It also would add 4,300 asylum officers to facilitate faster processing of asylum claims.
Currently, there is a backlog of over 3.3 million immigration cases, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University. And asylum cases can take up to seven years to vet through immigration courts.
Biden said by adding more asylum officers, cases can be closed in six months. And he believes that will significantly reduce the pull factors drawing migrants to the U.S. border. Because he said if they know their case will be closed within half a year then they won’t pay human smugglers upwards of $8,000 per person to cross the Rio Grande.
“Most Americans don’t understand how complicated this is,” Biden said.
If passed, the legislation would increase the number of U.S. detention beds by 10,000 to 50,000, which immigration analysts say is still nowhere close to the total amount needed if the administration were to reduce the number of asylum-seekers put on Alternatives to Detention and who are legally paroled into the country.
An additional 100 immigration judges also would be added, as well as $400 million more for non-intrusive inspection technology that can help border officers at ports of entry to locate contraband.
Border cities and states that provide critical services to migrants also would be eligible for $1.4 billion in additional federal funding.
Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., and several South Texas border mayors, including from McAllen, San Antonio, Laredo and Edinburg, were invited to the press conference and stood directly behind Biden.
“We hope this is just the beginning of many more visits to our region,” U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat who represents Brownsville, told the president.
“President Biden’s trip to South Texas is an important step to demonstrate his commitment to address the decades-old challenges we are encountering on the border,” Laredo Mayor Victor Trevino told Border Report.
Brownsville Mayor John Cowen told Biden that his city of fewer than 200,000 residents has helped over 240,000 migrants. Many end up at the city’s Welcome Center, which is operated by various nonprofits.
Andrea Rudnik, volunteer coordinator for the nonprofit Team Brownsville, which offers migrants at the Welcome Center free toiletries and travel advice, told Border Report she is glad Biden came to the border Thursday to see the situation for himself. And she said his visit will help to dispel incorrect rhetoric about asylum-seekers.
“When people use terms like ‘illegals’ we always say these people are released with legal documents that allow them to travel to their families. They’re not illegal,” Rudnik said.
If Biden were to drastically decrease the number of eligible asylum-seekers, as has been rumored, then Rudnik says she expects them to amass south of the border.
Currently, about 100 migrants live in an outdoor encampment across the river from Brownsville in Matamoros, Mexico, and about 1,100 live in a renovated hospital facility provided by Mexican officials where tents are pitched and some meals provided.
“We wouldn’t be able to help as many people in Brownsville. Our work in Matamoros would increase because I’m pretty sure our work would build up there and in other border cities where people would be waiting,” she said.
Biden said the border bill is a “compromise” and does not include everything he wants. He briefly mentioned closing the border if migrant encounters rose too high.
Mayorkas criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — whose Operation Lone Star border security initiative has barred federal Border Patrol agents from a park in Eagle Pass. Mayorkas said, “Texas Gov Abbott’s efforts to undermine federal border enforcement efforts.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
