The Border Patrol union warned President Biden to “keep our name out of your mouth” in a statement ahead of his planned visit to the border on Thursday.
Biden is set to visit Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday, where he will meet with Border Patrol, law enforcement, and local leaders. After receiving a briefing on border-security operations and an operational briefing from CBP, ICE and USCIS, Biden will deliver remarks “to emphasize the need for Congressional Republicans to stop putting politics ahead of our border security and pass the bipartisan border security agreement,” the White House said.
Senate Republicans voted against the bipartisan bill earlier this month, with opponents saying it would normalize high levels of illegal immigration.
While the National Border Patrol Council has supported the bipartisan bill, which includes additional staffing for Border Patrol and other agencies and funding for cities and states receiving migrants, the union reacted critically to Biden ahead of his planned visit on Thursday, which the group called “too little, too late.”
“Attention President Biden: Keep our name out of your mouth today,” the group wrote in a post on X.
Border Patrols are “so upset” about the president’s visit “because he’s not going to any location where he’s going to be able to evaluate what he needs to do,” union president Brandon Judd said during an appearance on Fox News.
Brownsville saw 76,000 migrant apprehensions in the first four months of this fiscal year, according to CBP data. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump is making his own visit to the border on Thursday, where he is set to see Eagle Pass, Texas, which saw 169,000 apprehensions over that same period.
“The past three years are ALL ON HIM,” Judd said.
Earlier this week the union questioned Biden’s motivations for only now moving to address the border crisis.
“But even if he were to put the proper policies in place at this late hour, he’d be doing it only to try to save his Presidency. And self-serving actions when time is winding down should always give Americans pause. Common sense dictates that as a lame duck, he’d revert to his open border policies if re-elected,” the union said.
“Biden is going to the border now solely to try to save himself. Border security should never be about politics, it should always be about the safety and security of this great nation and the American people,” it added.
Alejandro Mayorkas will travel with Biden on Thursday, weeks after the Homeland Security secretary was impeached by the Republican-controlled house over his failure to manage the crisis at the border.