President Joe Biden will be heading to the border town of Brownsville, Texas, to meet with U.S. border patrol agents and other leaders as he renews calls for additional funding for border security, a White House official told Scripps News.
The White House official said President Biden will urge House Republicans to consider a border security agreement that centrists in the Senate are proposing. Earlier this month, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Arizona; James Lankford, R-Oklahoma; and Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, worked out legislation that would increase the government’s power to deport migrants.
The bill would include $7 billion in funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Senate agreement would make it more challenging for asylum seekers to stay in the U.S. and it would close certain catch-and-release loopholes, the senators say.
SEE MORE: The struggle to locate migrant children missing from US homes
President Biden’s visit comes as ICE officials consider a draft plan that proposes releasing immigrants and cutting detention capacity by about 16,000 beds to account for a $700 million budget shortfall. The plan was first reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by Scripps News.
Immigration has become a key issue in this year’s presidential election. Nearly 1 in 4 GOP voters in Saturday’s South Carolina GOP primary said immigration was the top issue in this election, according to an exit poll conducted by Decision Desk HQ.
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