President Joe Biden will make a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, the White House announced, as the issue of immigration continues to be a major one ahead of the presidential election.

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden will make a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, the White House announced on Monday

  • In his visit to Brownsville, Texas, which is adjacent to Matamoros, Mexico, Biden will meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement and other officials and urge Congress to pass immigration reform, according to a White House official

  • Biden has visited the U.S.-Mexico border once before amid criticism of his migration politices, traveling to El Paso, Texas, last year, but Thursday's trip will be his first since Republicans killed a bipartisan bill that would have enacted strict immigration reform and provided funding for border security in exchange for Israel and Ukraine aid

  • In a move underscoring the importance of the immigration issue in November's election, Biden will be visiting the border the same day as his once and (likely) future opponent: former President Donald Trump

In his visit to Brownsville, Texas, which is adjacent to Matamoros, Mexico, Biden will meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement and other officials and urge Congress to pass immigration reform, according to a White House official.

Biden "will 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" and "reiterate his calls for Congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology and more," per the official.

Biden has visited the U.S.-Mexico border once before amid criticism of his migration politices, traveling to El Paso, Texas, last year, but Thursday's trip will be his first since Republicans killed a bipartisan bill that would have enacted strict immigration reform and provided funding for border security in exchange for Israel and Ukraine aid. Despite the fact that a conservative Republican lawmaker was involved in the negotiations, the bill was opposed by several prominent GOP members, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump, who argued that it did not go far enough to secure the border.

In the wake of the bill's scuttling, President Biden said he is considering taking executive action to secure the border, which drew backlash from officials on both the far-right and far-left. 

Biden is considering executive actions to help stop the flow of migrants into the U.S. Among the actions under consideration by Biden is invoking authorities outlined in Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which give a president broad leeway to block entry of certain immigrants into the United States if it would be “detrimental” to the national interest.

News of Biden's trip was first reported by The New York Times.

In a move underscoring the importance of the immigration issue in November's election, Biden will be visiting the border the same day as his once and (likely) future opponent: former President Donald Trump.

Sources told Spectrum News that Trump will be in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday, where he is expected to deliver remarks and make the case that the incumbent Democratic president is on the defensive about the issue.

Trump's campaign accused Biden of attempting to "chase" the Republican to the border.

"Biden’s last-minute, insincere attempt to chase President Trump to the border won’t cut it — Americans know Biden is single-handedly responsible for the worst immigration crisis in history,"  Trump Campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Biden, on the other hand, has slammed Trump and House Republicans for pulling out of the bipartisan border agreement and made clear that he will continue to lay the blame at their feet from now until November.

"If the bill fails, I want to be absolutely clear about something: The American people are going to know why it failed," Biden vowed earlier this month on the eve of the bill's demise. "I’ll be taking this issue to the country, and the voters are going to know that just at the moment we were going to secure the border and fund these other programs, Trump and the MAGA Republicans said no because they’re afraid of Donald Trump, afraid of Donald Trump.

"Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends," he said. "It’s time for Republicans in the Congress to show a little courage, to show a little spine to make it clear to the American people that you work for them and not for anyone else."

Brownsville is located in the Rio Grande Valley, which often sees large numbers of border crossings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.