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Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump visited the border on Thursday, and lawmakers in Tallahassee passed a bill to combat antisemitism. 

Trump and Biden visit the border

Former President Donald Trump spoke alongside Texas and border patrol officials near the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, describing the humanitarian crisis there as a “war” and spouted false conspiracy theories that the flow of migrants into the country was an “invasion” orchestrated by President Joe Biden to import “entire columns of fighting-age men.”

Biden is “allowing thousands and thousands of people to come in from China, Iran, Yemen, the Congo, Syria and a lot of other nations. Many that nations are not very friendly to us,” Trump baselessly charged. “He’s transported the entire columns of fighting-age men and they’re all at a certain age and you look at them, and I said, ‘They look like warriors to me, something’s going on.’ It’s bad.”

The baseless claims and insinuations echo the white supremacist conspiracy theory known as “The Great Replacement.” The theory, which posits Democrats and other elites are intentionally bringing nonwhite migrants into the country to “replace” white Americans and sow chaos, has inspired racist mass shootings with death tolls in the hundreds in the U.S. and across the world in the last decade.

“I think they’re looking for votes, they’re looking for something, nobody’s really been able to tell me how anybody could want it,” Trump charged, before stumbling through a commentary on non-English speaking migrants. “Allowing millions of people from places unknown, from countries unknown, who don’t speak languages — we have languages coming into our country, we have nobody that even speaks those languages. They’re, they’re truly foreign languages. Nobody speaks them.”

Trump and his campaign have pledged that his second administration will orchestrate the largest deportation operations in U.S. history, attempt to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship and bring troops home from abroad to be deployed at the southern border — including using the U.S. Navy to “impose a full naval embargo on the cartels,” as his campaign said this week.

The 2024 GOP frontrunner’s visit to the border came simultaneously to Biden’s visit to Brownsville, Texas, where he also addressed border and immigration issues and appealed to Republicans — including Trump — to embrace bipartisan solutions. Trump opposed a bipartisan border deal and helped convince Republicans, including some negotiators, to abandon it earlier this month.

“Here’s what I would say to Mr. Trump: Instead of playing politics with this issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I’ll join you, in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill,” Biden said Thursday. “We can do it together.”

“Let’s remember who the heck we work for. We work for the American people. Not the Democratic Party, the Republican Party. The American people,” the president added.

The proposed deal would have given Biden the authority to shut down the border if the number of migrant crossings in a given day crossed 8,500, or an average of 5,000 over a seven-day period. It also would have provided $20 billion in funding to facilitate the hiring of an additional 1,500 border patrol personnel, 4,300 asylum officers and 100 immigration judges, as well as allocated funds for 100 machines to help detect fentanyl and around $1.4 billion for cities and municipalities struggling to address their community’s ballooning migrant populations, per the White House.

“Trump said, ‘Blame it on me.’ And so I will. Trump’s need to boost his own fragile political ego has gotten us here with another manufactured logjam,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on a press call organized by the Biden campaign on Wednesday, quoting Trump directly. “A few weeks ago, there was a chance for a real breakthrough on immigration policy. President Biden and congressional Democrats did what voters say they want from leaders: They sat down at a table with Republicans and negotiated a bipartisan compromise.”

“But the same Republicans who helped write and were prepared to vote for it suddenly opposed it. Why? Because Donald Trump told them to because Donald Trump doesn’t want a solution,” Pritzker continued.

Trump spoke at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, a park on the Rio Grande where migrants — including children — have died attempting to reach since Gov. Greg Abbott seized it, kicked out U.S. Border Patrol and set up miles of razor wire. The federal government successfully sued to regain access and cut the wire, but Abbott’s administration has continued to defy the Supreme Court order and challenge Biden’s authority. While in Eagle Pass, Trump met with Abbott, border patrol agents and state and local law enforcement officials.

“Biden is using every tool that he can to tear down the borders that Texas is putting up in our state,” Abbott said on Thursday. “What our National Guard has done, they have sealed off this entire park and taken it over, because this area was being used by the Biden administration to violate the laws of the United States of America.”

Abbott, Texas National Guard Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer and border patrol union president Brandon Judd spoke alongside Trump when he addressed the media after touring the heavily fortified park. Judd described his members, federal employees who answer to Biden administration appointees, as “your agents” to Trump, who has not been president for over three years.

“Your agents, Mr. President, are pissed. Border Patrol agents are upset that we cannot get the proper policy,” Judd said. “Thank goodness we have a governor like Gov. Abbott. Thank goodness we have somebody that’s willing to run for president of the United States, forgo everything else that he’s been doing to serve the American people.”

Abbott and Trump both played up the menace of crime from migrants, with the Texas Republican also claiming his state was the subject of an “invasion.” Both referenced rapes, assaults and murders by undocumented immigrants, though the high-profile cases do not reflect years of data and analyses that conclude migrants, regardless of their legal status, commit less crimes than natural-born U.S. citizens.

“Immigrants are 30% less likely to be incarcerated than are U.S.-born individuals who are white,” a Stanford University report from last year found. The right-wing Cato Institute reported in 2020 that immigrants, regardless of their legal status, were less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

“This immigrant crime narrative is racist. It’s not true,” California Rep. Robert Garcia said on the Wednesday press call. “Trump is out here saying that we’re poisoning the blood of this country. And the facts actually don’t bear that out.”

Trump directly addressed the murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley last week. Police have arrested a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally, but was allowed to stay as his immigration case was processed. Trump and other Republicans have seized on the case as an example of the dangers migrants pose to U.S. citizens. 

On Thursday, Trump said he had spoken to Riley’s parents.

“She was a beautiful young woman. She was a great person, best nursing student there was. I spoke to her parents yesterday. They’re incredible people that are devastated beyond belief,” Trump said. “The monster that was charged in the death is an illegal alien migrant who was let into our country and released into our communities by crooked Joe Biden. He’s crooked — I took the name away from Hillary [Clinton]. Because she’s no longer relevant, I guess.”

According to an AP-NORC poll in January, the share of voters concerned about immigration rose to 35% from 27% last year. Fifty-five percent of Republicans say the government needs to focus on immigration in 2024, while 22% of Democrats listed immigration as a priority. That’s up from 45% and 14%, respectively, from December 2022.

The number of people who are illegally crossing the U.S. border has been rising for years for complicated reasons that include climate change, war and unrest in other nations, the economy, and cartels that see migration as a cash cow.

The administration’s approach has been to pair crackdowns at the border with increasing legal pathways for migrants designed to steer people into arriving by plane with sponsors, not illegally on foot to the border.

Arrests for illegal crossings fell by half in January, but there were record highs in December. The numbers of migrants flowing across the U.S-Mexico border have far outpaced the capacity of an immigration system that has not been substantially updated in decades. Trump and Republicans claim Biden is refusing to act, but absent a law change from Congress, any major policies are likely to be challenged or held up in court.

“I am an immigrant myself, I came to the U.S. when I was a young kid. I know how difficult it is to go through the immigration process, to become a citizen, to to struggle with poverty and to struggle through the process,” said Garcia, the California Democrat who came to the U.S. from Peru as a young child. “We actually could fix our system, but Donald Trump is not interested in it, so I personally take great offense to the way he characterizes people like myself and my family. And the way he is essentially characterizing essentially going back to a system where he would forcibly remove people like me, like my family from our homes and neighborhoods into detention or to be deported.”

“It is sick,” Garcia added. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lawmakers pass antisemitism bill in Tallahassee

The Florida Legislature unanimously approved legislation Thursday adopting a new definition of antisemitism. 

The final version of the bill was passed by the House during the first-ever “Israel Day” at the Florida Capitol. The Senate passed its version of the bill on Wednesday.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance drafted the definition Florida is adopting. If approved, Florida would become the 13th state to do so.

The legislation’s definition of antisemitism is as follows:

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

More information on the IHRA definition is available online.

Supporters say Florida’s legislation empowers prosecutors and police to address hate crimes more effectively.

The bill, House Bill 148, now awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ consideration. 

“We will continue this fight to tempt down inequality in the State of Florida and raise up those who need to be raised,” said the bill sponsor, Democratic State Rep. Mike Gotlieb.

Antisemitism nationwide is on the rise, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

“When conflict erupts in Israel, antisemitic incidents soon follow in the U.S. and globally,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

“You can use the definition when there is a hate crime,” said Boynton Beach Democratic State Sen. Lori Berman. “You can use the definition when there’s discrimination.” 

Despite bipartisan support, at least one lawmaker voiced concern.

Palm Bay Republican Rep. Randy Fine said he supports the bill, but fears that some local leaders may not utilize it.

“It will not matter if we don’t demand that they act on these laws as we pass them,” said Fine, a Jewish lawmaker. 

DeSantis often touts Florida as the “most pro-Israel state” in the nation. 

To date, he’s embarked upon two Israeli trade missions and provided logistical support to Israel after the Oct. 7 attack. 

“Florida is doing everything right, and it should be done across the country and across the world,” said Consul General of Israel to Florida, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky. 

Other pro-Israel legislation this session includes policy boosting security at Jewish schools and a new state holiday — Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The 2024 Legislative Session ends March 8.

Short-term spending bill passes both chambers of Congress

The Senate and the House have both passed another short-term spending measure Thursday that would keep one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22, narrowly avoiding a shutdown for parts of the federal government that would otherwise kick in Saturday.

The measure now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he is expected to sign it quickly.

In a 320 to 99 vote, the House passed a short-term funding agreement to avoid a partial government shutdown Friday. Florida Republicans were divided on the measure. 

Twelve of the 20 Florida Republicans in the House voted against the short-term spending bill, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Matt Gaetz.

“If it were up to me, if I was a speaker, I’d say look, we need those 12 standalone appropriations bills, we need to determine exactly where we can make some of those cuts,” Luna said. “And frankly, remember, it’s been a really long time since we’ve balanced the budget.”

The short-term deal followed a meeting between congressional leaders of both parties with President Joe Biden at the White House earlier this week. It sets new funding deadlines for March 8 and March 22.

It does not include the $95 billion foreign aid package for wartime funding to Ukraine and Israel that passed the Senate earlier this month.

The funding agreement also does not include any new border provisions as both Biden and former President Donald Trump took dueling visits to the U.S. Southern Border Thursday.

House Freedom Caucus members, including Luna, had sought a 1% across the board cut to discretionary spending.

House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the deal opposed by many in his own party Thursday.

“The appropriations process is ugly. Democracy is ugly. This is the way it works every year, always has, except that we’ve instituted some new innovations,” Johnson said. “We broke the omnibus fever, right? That’s how Washington has been run for years. We’re trying to turn the aircraft carrier back to real budgeting and spending reform. This was an important thing to break it up into smaller pieces.”

This is the fourth extension of the government funding deadline since September. Lawmakers say they are hopeful a fifth won’t be needed, and that funding for the full budget year that began five months ago will soon be approved.