JUST IN: Biden to Visit Border in Texas on Sunday To ‘Assess Border Enforcement Operations’

Susan Walsh, AP

President Joe Biden will visit the Southern U.S. Border this weekend to “assess border enforcement operations and meet with local elected officials.”

Over the past 24 hours, President Biden has solidified plans for a border visit, and on Thursday afternoon, in a statement emailed to Mediaite, the White Houe announced the visit will take place this Sunday in El Paso, Texas:

On Sunday, January 8, the President will travel to El Paso, Texas. The President will assess border enforcement operations and meet with local elected officials and community leaders who have been important partners in managing the historic number of migrants fleeing political oppression and gang violence in Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

This trip will be pooled press. Additional details to follow.

Fox News has long clamored for Biden to visit the border, leading a media charge that appears to have finally yielded results. On Wednesday, the president made several allusions to the trip as he traveled to and from Kentucky and Ohio.

There was this exchange as he left Kentucky:

Q Are you going to be visiting the border when you head down to Mexico?

THE PRESIDENT: That’s my intention. We’re working out the details now.

And in the afternoon, he was asked about it again:

Q Mr. President, what would you like to see when you go to the border?

THE PRESIDENT: Peace and security. No, I’m going to see what’s going on. I’m going to be making a speech tomorrow on border security, and you’ll hear more about it tomorrow.

On Thursday, Biden did deliver a speech announcing new measures the White House says will “increase security at the border and reduce the number of individuals crossing unlawfully between ports of entry. These measures will expand and expedite legal pathways for orderly migration and result in new consequences for those who fail to use those legal pathways. They also draw on the success of the Venezuela initiative, which launched in October 2022 and has resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of Venezuelan nationals attempting to enter the United States unlawfully.”

Shortly thereafter, the White House announced Biden’s trip.