In a media interview in Eagle Pass (Texas), on Thursday, former President Donald Trump called the situation at southern border a “Joe Biden invasion”.

Trump said, “I call Joe ‘Crooked’ because he is crooked.” He’s a terrible President. “He’s the worst president that our country has had and probably the most unqualified president we have ever had.”

Standing only yards from the Rio Grande River, Trump claimed that there was a “new type of vicious crime against our country,” called “Biden Migrant Crime.”

Trump added that Biden “allows thousands of thousands, and actually millions and millions, to come”, adding “[It] might be 15 or 18 million people by the time Biden leaves office.”

Trump even went as far as to say that “if you add up all the problems and lousy work they have done over the past 10 years, it is not as bad as what this man has done.”

Trump told his successor at the Oval Office that “he’s destroying this country.”

Former President Clinton criticized “Crooked Joe Biden” and explained that he “took Hillary [Clinton]’s name away because she is no longer relevant,” while discussing the death of University of Georgia student Laken Riley in Athens on February 22, allegedly at the hands of a illegal alien.

We will not forget. Trump said, “We’re not forgetting her.”

Customs and Border Protection, since Biden’s appointment in January 2021 has encountered over 8.8 millions illegal aliens at the ports of entry and on America’s borders. CBP has also seized over 56,000 pounds fentanyl and encountered approximately 1,500 people on America’s terror watch list since Biden’s election.

Trump praised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, another Republican, was praised for his efforts in securing the border. He called it a military operation and added that “Texas has a very secure border.”

Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has been a strategic move to stop illegal border crossers by using razor wire, National Guard troops and other resources.

Trump made his remarks in Shelby Park, which has been a point of contention between the Biden Administration and Abbott. Abbott and Texas National Guard troops seized control of the park in January. The Border Patrol used the park as a staging ground for illegal aliens crossing the Rio Grande. Since the Texas National Guard has taken over the park, the number of illegal crossings in Eagle Pass has decreased significantly.

Abbott praised Trump’s four border policies, which he said had significantly reduced illegal immigration under his administration.

Abbott said that “the end of ‘catch-and-release,’ the Title 42 Policy, the Remain in Mexico’ Policy, and the building of the border wall” worked together to secure border under Trump. He then lamented the fact that border would have been secure had Biden simply continued Trump’s policies.

Biden met local leaders, Border Patrol agents, and law enforcement in Brownsville, Texas. This is about 330 miles from Shelby Park.

Biden’s visit to Brownsville marks the second time the President has visited the border since assuming office. Biden visited El Paso in Texas in January 2023.

In his remarks on Thursday, Biden called for the passage of a Senate bill bordering the United States that he supported and that was opposed by most Republicans in Congress.

Biden said that the bill was almost passed until “partisan politics” derailed it.

After the bill was introduced, GOP lawmakers dismissed it quickly. They claimed that it wouldn’t secure the border but would allow illegal aliens into the country every day.

Former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott, who spoke to The Daily Signal before the duels border trips, said that Biden and Trump could ask Border Patrol agents some critical questions.

What impact does the flow have on your ability positively to identify individuals? What impact has the flow and sheer numbers had on your ability, to actually interview someone, to determine, you know, their intention for entering the United States.

Scott also said that he would question Biden about why the president felt the need to “go to South Texas to do a photo-op” when the Border Patrol chief could give him a briefing at any time on the situation along the border?

Scott wasn’t the only critic of Biden’s Texas trip on Thursday. The Border Patrol Union called the president’s border visit “too late, too little,” and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) on X, formerly Twitter, called it a “publicity trick.”

Mark Green, R.-Tenn. chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said in a statement on Thursday that Biden chose to visit “one the slowest segments of our Southwest Border.”

Green, referring specifically to Alejandro Mayorkas as the impeached secretary of the [Department of Homeland Security], said that President Biden and Mayorkas could end the crisis by enforcing laws already in place, laws passed with bipartisan majority in Congress. The American people will continue to pay the high and unacceptable costs of this crisis until that time. This includes residents from Tucson, Arizona to Athens in Georgia.

Others defended Biden’s visit. Thurman Bartie, Port Arthur, Texas Mayor, told USA Today that he believes Biden is not only doing this for the photos, but also to gain knowledge about what can be done to solve such a huge, massive problem.

Eight months before the presidential elections on November 5, the trips of both the current and previous presidents will take place. Recent polling shows that Americans are most concerned about the border crisis ahead of the presidential election in 2024.

According to a Pew Research survey, 77% of Americans believe that the border situation is a crisis or a major problem. A Gallup poll shows that 28% think immigration is the biggest problem the United States faces, surpassing the concerns about the “government” as well as the “economy.”