President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump visited different parts of the U.S. southern border on Thursday.
This marked a unique opportunity for American voters to witness the contrasting policies, arguments, and styles of the two leading presidential candidates.
Biden, in Brownsville, Tex., met with federal Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement officials. Meanwhile, Trump met with Border Patrol officials and the Texas National Guard, The Washington Post reported.
In his speech, Biden appreciated the Border Patrol agents and immigration enforcement and asylum officers. "They're all doing incredible work under really tough conditions," he said.
"It's the toughest set of border security reforms we've ever seen in this country," he added, "With this deal, we could hire 1,500 additional border security adds, 1,500 additional officers, and between ports of entry."
Meanwhile, in Eagle Pass, Trump said the country was in danger from immigrants from the other side of the border. "They're coming from jails, and they're coming from prisons, and they're coming from mental institutions. And they're coming from insane asylums, and they're terrorists. They're being let into our country."
Biden. while mentioning Trump, asked him to "stop playing politics" with the border issue.
"So instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we just get together and get it done?" Biden said. "Let's remember who the heck we work for. We work for the American people, not the Democratic Party, the Republican Party. We work for the American people," he said.
"Join me – or I'll join you – in telling Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do this together," Biden said while addressing Trump.
However, speaking in Eagle Pass, Trump blamed Biden directly for recent crimes that migrants were accused of committing across the country, using visceral language to describe the recent killing of a Georgia nursing student allegedly at the hands of an undocumented Venezuelan migrant.
"The United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime," Trump said. "It's a new form of vicious violation to our country. It's migrant crime. We call it Biden migrant crime. But that's a little bit long, so we'll just leave it."
"The United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime," Trump said in Eagle Pass.
