Biden and Trump to visit US-Mexico border on same day

Joe Biden and Donald Trump will both travel to the US border with Mexico on Thursday, dueling visits by the president and his probable opponent for re-election underlining the importance of immigration as an issue in the coming campaign.

Biden will visit Brownsville, Texas, in the Rio Grande valley, while his presidential predecessor will head for Eagle Pass, about 325 miles distant.

In New York on Monday, Biden told reporters: “I planned it for Thursday. What I didn’t know was that my good friend, apparently, is going.”

Asked if he would meet migrants in Brownsville, the president said: “I’m not going to announce ahead of time.”

The White House said Biden would “meet with US Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, and local leaders”.

It also said Biden would “discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades. He will reiterate his calls for congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional US Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology and more.”

Conditions at the southern border represent a growing problem for the White House, both practically in terms of coping with record numbers of undocumented migrants arriving via Central America and politically in terms of defending against Republican attacks.

Earlier this month, Trump directed Republicans to sink a bipartisan border and immigration deal in the Senate. Alarming progressives, Biden has since been reported to be weighing using executive orders to impose policy changes including restricting access to the US for migrants claiming asylum.

Demanding a border bill regardless of such machinations by