EAGLE PASS, Texas — Former President Donald Trump called the record-setting surge of immigrants crossing the border the “Joe Biden invasion” in a dueling border visit with the president Thursday in Texas.
Trump, in remarks delivered near the border, directly blamed Biden for the recent alleged kidnapping and murder of Laken Riley, a University of Georgia nursing student, by a Venezuelan national released into the country in 2022 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It’s a military operation,” Trump said, lauding Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) for mobilizing the Texas National Guard and sending units to the border last year. “But this is a Joe Biden invasion. This has been a Biden invasion over the past three years.”
He additionally accused illegal immigrants of driving a national crime wave.
“It’s migrant crime. We call it Biden migrant crime, but that’s a little bit long, so we’ll just leave it there,” the former president continued before bringing up Riley.
“She was a great person, the best nursing student there was,” he added, claiming that he had spoken to Riley’s family on Wednesday. “Biden will never say Laken Riley’s name, but we will say it, and we will remember. We’re not going to forget her.”
Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, additionally attacked Biden for on Thursday visiting Brownsville, Texas, a relatively low-flow section of the border rather than Eagle Pass, or other areas in Arizona and California he referred to as the “epicenter” of the immigration crisis.
Earlier in the day, Trump visited the Texas National Guard’s Border Headquarters, where Abbott and other local officials briefed him on the situation at the border. The former president showed particular interest in displays showing the razor wire the Texas National Guard has placed at highly trafficked illegal border crossings.
The former president later viewed a section of the border that runs directly along the Rio Grande, where he again visited with Texas National Guardsmen and thanked the press for being there on Thursday before being given a tour of vehicles National Guard use at the border. Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steve McGraw and Texas Border Czar Mike Banks accompanied Trump on the tour.
All throughout Trump’s tour of the border, Mexican security forces were present on the southern side of the Rio Grande, while several Border Patrol boats slowly cruised up and down the river just away from where Trump was standing.
Trump has specifically pressed the border as a campaign concern in recent months, effectively stalling Biden’s attempts to advance a bipartisan deal for new Ukraine aid in exchange for substantive immigration policy reform.
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Biden again hosted the “Big Four” congressional leaders at the White House earlier this week to pressure House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on the matter.
Trump’s remarks can be seen in full below.