Trump to visit 'decimated' Mexico border with Texas Gov. Abbott on June 30
Trump attributed the immigration crisis to the White House's reversal of his immigration policies
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the end of the month, which he described on Tuesday as an "unmitigated disaster zone."
The president said in a press release that he had accepted Abbott's invitation to visit the "decimated" border, a deteriorating situation that he attributed to the Biden administration’s decisions to reverse many of his immigration policies.
"Biden and Harris have handed control of our border over to cartels, criminals, and coyotes. Drug dealers, MS-13 gang members, human smugglers, sex traffickers, and the criminal elements of the world now have free reign," Trump said in a statement. "What Biden and Harris have done, and are continuing to do on our border, is a grave and willful dereliction of duty."
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Abbott previously told Fox News in an interview that later this week he will unveil the state’s plans to build a border wall in an attempt to finish what the former president started.
"We will continue that process of building the border wall in addition to these other strategies that we will use to make sure that anybody coming here will understand Texas is the wrong state to come into," Abbott said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden signed an executive order on his Inauguration Day pausing construction on the border wall project spearheaded by Trump. The White House also ended the former administration’s national emergency declaration at the border shortly after taking over, in addition to terminating a number of other measures like the "Remain in Mexico" policy.
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Vice President Kamala Harris recently drew criticism from members of her own party during her first trip to Guatemala and Mexico since she was tasked with addressing the "root causes" of the immigration crisis at the end of March.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}During a press conference with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, Harris warned migrants not to make the "dangerous trek" to the U.S. border where they would be turned away.
Harris' comments come as the U.S. battles a surge in migrant encounters at the U.S. border, which totaled more than 180,000 in May, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
She and the president have yet to visit the U.S. border, though Harris told Univision in an interview last week that she planned to do so. She declined to give a date when asked.