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Feb. 29 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday amid a duel over border security policy ahead of the 2024 election. Biden traveled to Brownsville, Texas, to meet with local leaders, as well as Border Patrol agents, law enforcement personnel and frontline personnel, to discuss a bipartisan measure that was killed in the Senate after Trump voiced his opposition.
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The bill would add 1,500 new border patrol personnel, boost asylum officers by 4,300, increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds by 50,000, add funding for 100 additional immigration judges, and funds to install 100 drug inspection machines.
It would also include $1.4 billion for cities and states dealing with the influx of immigrants.
"It would make our country safer, make our border more secure and treat people more fairly and humanely while preserving legal immigration, consistent with our nation's values," the White House said, noting it had received support from the Border Patrol Union, the Chamber of Commerce, the South Texas Alliance of Cities and the Wall Street Journal.
Senate Republicans, however, balked on the measure, which had initially been tied to funding for Ukraine and Israel as Trump has publicly made it clear he wants immigration and border policy to remain at the forefront of the public's mind as the election draws near.
During his visit to Brownsville, Biden called the bill "the toughest set of border security reforms we've ever seen in this country" and argued the provisions in the bill would cut down on the backlog of asylum claims and deter people from entering the country illegally.
"A person who's thinking about entering the United States understands that a case that's to be decided in a few weeks or months, instead of five to seven years, is less likely to come in the first place," Biden said. "They're not going to pay the cartels thousands of dollars to make that journey knowing they'll be turned around quickly."
Biden called on senators who opposed it to "set politics aside and pass it on merit" and appeared to lay the blame on Trump for why it stalled.
"The majority of Democrats and Republicans of both houses support this legislation until someone came along and said 'don't do that. It'll benefit the incumbent.' That's a hell of a way to do business in America for such a serious problem," Biden said.
Biden also touted more than $13 billion dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to provide relief from winter storms and wildfires in Texas.
"When disasters strike, there's no red state or blue state where I come from," Biden said. "It's just communities and families looking for help, so we're standing with everyone affected by these wildfires."
Trump, who announced his visit before Biden, visited Eagle Pass, where Texas authorities have placed barriers next to the Rio Grande there to prevent border river crossings.
The former president in his remarks called illegal border crossings a "Biden invasion over the past three years," which is allowing "thousands and thousands" of "fighting-aged men" into the country.
"It could be 15 million -- it could be 18 million -- by the time [Biden] gets out of office. Because hopefully the biggest risk we have is nine months -- that's a long time. A lot of bad things could happen," Trump said.
Trump also threw barbs at California Gov. Gavin Newsom for allegedly prioritizing medical aid for migrants over health care for veterans.
"They're pouring in through the beautiful state -- the once beautiful state. It's still beautiful I guess, but they have a lot of crime and a lot of problems -- California, because the governor's not doing his job in California," Trump said.
Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Biden of making an "insincere attempt" to address the border because it has become a losing political issue for Democrats.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has fought with the Biden administration on numerous issues, joined Trump during his visit.
Abbott during Trump's visit praised the former president for coming to Eagle Pass on the border and chastised Biden for his visit to "some sanitized location in the Brownsville area."
"[Biden is] not seeing the razor wire that Texas has put up around Brownsville, and he announced he was going to Brownsville after it was already known that President Trump was coming to the state of Texas," Abbott said. "It just goes to show that Biden does not care about either Texas or the border and what's going on."
The two men's competing trips to Texas came on the same day a federal judge blocked Texas officials from implementing a broad new state immigration law that would have allowed them to arrest, jail and prosecute migrants with greater impunity.
In his 114-page order on Thursday, Judge David Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled to prevent the implementation of Texas State Bill 4, which had been set to take effect on March 5.
That law would have given Texas officials broad powers to arrest and deport migrants seeking asylum.
Ezra wrote that immigration enforcement is left to the federal government and the law "conflicts with key provisions of federal immigration law, to the detriment of the United States' foreign relations and treaty obligations."
He also wrote that today's border crossings are not an "invasion" as claimed by Abbott and other Texas Republican lawmakers.
