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Our catch and release was we released them in Mexico. We were doing a great job. Thats where it stood and then we had an election, he said, flanked by Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, Judd, and members of the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety.

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Brownsville, the site of Bidens visit, is part of Rio Grande Valley Sector, which saw only about 7,340 encounters in January. This was Bidens first visit to the border since January 2023, and his first since conceding just over a month ago that the region is in crisis, conveniently coinciding with immigration becoming the countrys top voting issue. His visit comes after House Republicans spiked a recent bipartisan border compromise from the Senate that would have increased spending on border security as well as provided $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. In Brownsville, Biden touted the bill and said it was derailed by rank partisan politics and called on Trump to join him in urging Congress to pass it. Those senators who oppose it need to set politics aside, Biden said.

But Bidens been playing politics as well. His visit, long overdue after Decembers record-breaking border crossings, is political cover and a signal to the Democrats worried that his abysmal immigration ratings will hurt him and down-ballot Democrats in November.

Biden didnt call the situation at the border a crisis until there were Republicans to blame for it. Yes, MAGA House Republicans should have passed the bipartisan bill last month, but the border crisis existed long before there was a bill on the table. Bidens immigration policy has contributed to endangering migrants at the border and burdening border communities. The crisis has predictably worsened and Americans arent liable to forget: For years, cities and towns across the country have been gasping for support to handle a flood of migrants who are living in legal uncertainty.

This [visit] is a last-minute Hail Mary to try to save his presidency and we look at that as nothing more than self serving, Judd told me. Though the union supported the bipartisan border bill, it warned the president in a Thursday post on X to keep our name out of your mouth. (Biden ignored its request, citing the unions endorsement during his remarks.)

Judd told me that if the president had ever worked with us over the past three years of this failure, it would be different. But now, he wants to use us for political reasons. According to Judd, the president didnt reach out to the union ahead of his visit. The union endorsed Trump in 2016 and 2020 and is expected to do so again this year.

The president could have at least feigned concern for northern cities like Boston and New York that have been struggling to deal with thousands of new migrants. Its not like he hasnt had the opportunity to publicly tour a migrant shelter in the north: Hes visited Boston and New York to court donors in recent months. At a campaign reception at the Westin Boston Seaport District Hotel in December, the president had enough time to point out that Republicans refused to act on his suggestions for border reform. It seems he didnt have enough time to visit one of the nearby emergency shelters. There are now more than 7,500 families in Massachusetts emergency shelters, many of which are migrant families, and Governor Maura Healey recently put $250 million into the emergency shelter system.

Not that a visit would have done much. New York hosted a visit by Homeland Security officials in August, with the administration remarking on the exceptional efforts by New York officials to accommodate the migrants. But instead of promising to stem the flow at the border, DHS officials pledged $140 million, left a list of 11 federal sites across the state where migrants could be sheltered, and greenlighted access to a hangar at JFK airport as a shelter.

After the visit, Mayor Eric Adams criticized the administrations handling of the crisis and was subsequently kicked off the presidents reelection committee, perhaps freeing him to spend more time finding shelter space. If you average 10,000 people a month and if the national plan is to have New York City continue to find spaces, that is not an answer, Adams said in August. How do we stop this flow?

DHS officials also visited Massachusetts in October, with little to show for it. At the end of January, Healey and eight other governors blamed the strain from migrant arrivals in their states on the lack of congressional action on infrastructure and policies. Its a whole lot of jargon from Democratic governors who dont want to call out the presidents lack of leadership, but the underlying message is the same as Adamss: do something.

If Biden actually cared about fixing the border, he would have been there early and often or would have at least sent his supposed border czar, Vice President Kamala Harris. Hes finally considering an executive order to restrict migrants from seeking asylum if they crossed the border illegally between ports of entry, something he could have tried earlier. He hasnt always been allergic to executive actions on immigration: In the first 100 days of the presidency, the administration undertook 94 executive actions on immigration, 52 of which were targeted at undoing Trump-era policies.

Its true that Republicans should have voted for the border bill. They could have even tried to negotiate stronger terms. But that blunder came after a long trail of policy failures from this administration and previous ones, including Trumps. At Brownsville, Biden said, its long past time to act. Yes, it is. Welcome to the border crisis, Mr. President. Its been waiting for you.

Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at carine.hajjar@globe.com.

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Biden should know that the migrant crisis is also in Massachusetts - The Boston Globe

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