The last time that Biden visited the southern border was when he drove by it in 2008 as vice president.
QUICK FACTS:
- President Biden was asked on Tuesday by a reporter why he was not planning a trip to the southern border while he will be visiting the border state of Arizona.
- Biden responded, “Because there are more important things going on.”
- The president will be in Phoenix to visit the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd’s (TSMC) facility after the chipmaker said it will more than triple its planned investment there to $40 billion, Reuters reports.
MULTIPLE REPORTERS ASK WHY BIDEN WON’T VISIT THE SOUTHERN BORDER:
- Just last week, Peter Doocy garnered a chuckle from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with this question: “Kevin McCarthy says that he invited President Biden down to the border. Has the President RSVPed?” KJP retorted back that Biden “has been to the border” and argued that Republicans are performing “political stunts” while Biden “has been taking action to fix our immigration system and secure our border.”
- Fellow reporters Jacqui Heinrich and Ed Lawrence also pressed the White House about a Biden visit, specifically regarding his trip to Arizona on Monday.
- On the way to Arizona on Tuesday, the president shot down a similar question from Doocy as he prepared to board Marine One en route to Phoenix. The Fox News reporter asked, “Why go to a border state and not visit the border?” Biden replied, repeating what Jean-Pierre had stated on Monday, “Because there are more important things going on. They’re going to invest billions of dollars in the new enterprise in the state.”
BACKGROUND:
- The president of Princeton Policy Advisors, Steven Kopits, said that he expects 2.6 million illegal migrants to cross the border next year. “This coming March, April, and May, in particular, could post some spectacularly ugly numbers,” he said in a new write-up of the crisis.
- Border Patrol reported sobering October numbers concerning the number of illegals coming over the southern border. “Customs and Border Protection reported 204,273 apprehensions at the U.S. southwest border for the month of October. This is comfortably the highest on record for the month, besting last year’s record by 28%. To put it in context, October’s apprehensions were more than double the third-highest October, set in 1999 under the Clinton administration,” said Kopits.
