WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would visit the Texas-Mexico border later this month with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, after both have complained about a rise in migrants crossing into the United States.
Trump, Abbott and other Republicans have criticized Democratic President Joe Biden for rolling back Trump immigration restrictions as the number of migrants arriving at the border has reached the highest monthly levels in two decades.
“We went from having border security that was the envy of the world to a lawless border that is now pitied around the world,” Trump said in statement announcing he had accepted an invitation from Abbott to visit the border on June 30.
Trump did not say where along the 1,250-mile (2,000 km) border he would be visiting. Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump made the building of a wall along the border a signature part of his presidency, saying it was needed to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office – Jan. 20 – that paused wall construction, saying “a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution.”
Biden’s order was the first in a series of moves to undo many of the Trump administration’s immigration curbs and to put in place what the Biden administration has called more humane policies.
Abbott said last week that his state would build its own border wall, but whether he has the resources and legal authority to do that remains unclear.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; editing by Richard Pullin)
