Biden’s border trip will be missing one key thing… MIGRANTS: Crossing where Joe’s ‘photo op’ will take place is now just piles of trash and bored guards who’d have nothing to do since Texas set up concertina wire

Piles of trash and miles of fencing will greet President Joe Biden when he arrives in Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday for the second border visit of his presidency.

What will be missing are illegal migrants crossing the border.

At Camp Monument, once a bustling center run by the U.S. Custom and Border Patrol to process migrants who entered the country illegally in Brownsville, there were few signs of activity Wednesday.

Rows of fencing entwined with concertina wire gleamed in the hot Texas sun. The 12-foot-high wire fencing panels are laced with a looped layer of 3-foot-long concertina wire to prevent migrants from trying to climb on them. Mexico is visible across the Rio Grande.

But there were no signs of anyone trying to make the short crossing to the United States. However, piles of trash lined the riverbanks, a remnant from six months ago, when Brownsville was a major migration hotspot, with up to 10,000 crossings per day.

Two members of the Texas National Guard were stationed in the area and a few CBP officers were moving around, but all described the area as “quiet” when DailyMail.com toured it. Most of the action was a government patrol car driving along the riverbank on the American side.

The number of border crossings in Brownsville has fallen dramatically in recent months after Republican Governor Greg Abbott installed miles of wire fences as part of Operation Lone Star, which he signed into law in December.

It is unclear why the White House selected Brownsville for Thursday’s presidential visit and whether Biden will make any announcements on executive action. Biden will meet with US Border Patrol agents, law enforcement officials and local leaders as he comes under fire for his handling of the migration issue.

On the same day of Biden’s trip to Texas, Donald Trump will be in Eagle Pass, an area of ​​Texas still struggling with the influx of migrants. The former president will be about 530 miles away from his 2024 rival and the two leaders are not expected to communicate.

Internal CBP data for all Border Patrol stations in February – obtained by Fox News – shows that there were approximately 462 apprehensions in the Brownsville area, which amounts to about 17 per day.

That makes Brownsville, Texas, the 29th busiest Border Patrol station of the month. The number one station was Three Points in the Tucson, Arizona sector, which recorded more than 13,900 apprehensions in February.

Brownsville could provide Biden with a platform to argue that the number of illegal border crossings has dropped dramatically, as it was the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings for nine years.

But the Republicans have called it something else: a ‘photo-op.’

“I’m here to predict that he’s going to do what he did in El Paso, which is to hide every illegal immigrant and take a picture that is fundamentally misleading,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told Fox News’ Sean Hannity during the visit from Biden.

The White House has said it is Republicans in the House of Representatives who are turning the border into a “political stunt.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back against the GOP’s criticism of Biden’s trip, noting that it was Republicans in the House of Representatives who refused to vote on a bipartisan border security bill after Trump opposed it had spoken.

‘Oh, it’s very different. What the Republicans in the House of Representatives have done is nothing, absolutely nothing. In any case, they are constantly in the way,” she said during her press conference.

“They’re turning it into a political stunt by listening to Donald Trump and saying they have to put an end to it. This is what they did and made it political, with the president now directing his team to work with senators, both Republicans and Democrats, to get a bill done.”

Members of the Texas National Guard on patrol at the border – border crossings have been down since Republican Governor Greg Abbott installed fencing

Last May, before the fencing was installed, there were lines of immigrants waiting at Camp Monument to enter the country

President Joe Biden will make his second trip to the border of his presidency on Thursday

Local groups are also angry about the president’s quick visit, with one calling it a “press event.”

Voces Unidas RGV, part of the Souther Border Communities coalition, accused the White House of ignoring local needs.In exchange for a press event, ironically to meet with law enforcement officials about border security.”

“Despite these visits to the border, despite the photo ops and the press-friendly quotes, we remain unimpressed by the Biden administration’s lackluster commitment to our border communities in Texas, especially our immigrant, low-income and mixed-status communities the group said. a statement.

They called on Biden to sit down with migrants.

“If President Biden wants to be the public servant people need, he must take the time to sit down with underserved communities to hear where they stand.”

Brownsville has a predominantly Hispanic population, which at 93.9% has the third highest percentage of Hispanic Americans of any city in the US.

Its proximity to the border and large Hispanic community had made it a hotspot for illegal immigration. Moreover, with 200,000 inhabitants, it is one of the larger cities in the country and able to accommodate the influx of migrants.

The city is also a democratic stronghold. And it has a big one bus station and airport where migrants can leave for other destinations.

The border area at Camp Monument, the area in Brownsville to process migrants

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas visited the Camp Monument in May

A welcome to the sign of the United States in Brownsville, Texas

The border wall between Brownsville, Texas and Mexico

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visited Brownsville on May 5, 2023, during a major wave of crossings, when more than 10,000 asylum seekers crossed the border every day.

Mayorkas went to Camp Monument, a tent city on an old golf course just yards from the banks of the Rio Grande.

At that point, there had been more than 2 million arrests for illegal crossings in the past two years, more than double Trump’s peak year of just under 1 million in 2019. Now, however, the bulk of illegal migrant activity is in Arizona and California.

The tent city has largely disappeared while peace settles above Camp Monument.

Biden and Trump’s trips come as the immigration issue comes to the forefront of the campaign.

They also come a few days before the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5, when more than a dozen states will hold Republican nominating contests.

Both men have railed against each other over the border issue as they try to turn it into election-year fodder.

There have been record border crossings during Biden’s administration, a fact Trump and Republicans have called him out on.

And according to a Gallup poll, immigration is the most common issue cited by adult voters who disapprove of Biden’s performance.

The White House has tried to change the narrative on the issue, blaming Trump and Republicans in the House of Representatives for their refusal to support the bipartisan Senate bill. Conservatives argue the legislation didn’t go far enough.

The president is also under pressure from Democrats, including governors, mayors and senators in border states, to do more on the issue.

His first trip to the southern border was in January 2023, when Biden spent about four hours on the ground in El Paso, Texas.