In clash over immigration, Biden and Trump both bound for the U.S.-Mexico border today 

Surrogates for President Joe Biden dismissed former President Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday as a political stunt, adding that the likely Republican presidential nominee was exploiting an issue that he has shown no desire to fix.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, both Democrats, told reporters on a Wednesday conference call organized by the Biden reelection campaign that Trump’s record — recently and throughout his public life — showed he was anything but serious about addressing the myriad issues resulting from a recent surge in migration across the southern border.

Trump is scheduled to visit the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday to call attention to Biden’s record on border security.

Biden separately will pay a visit to Brownsville, about 300 miles southeast of Eagle Pass.

Trump has no credibility on immigration after tanking a bipartisan agreement to strengthen border enforcement, Pritzker and Garcia said Wednesday.  Trump reportedly asked Republicans in Congress not to support the deal to avoid handing Biden a victory in an election year, they noted.

“Republicans frankly just do not care about solving the challenges facing this country,” Pritzker said. “They only care about saving their own skin. This could have been a press call touting a bipartisan path forward. Instead, Donald Trump wanted a campaign slogan.”

In a campaign statement Wednesday, Trump commended his own record on immigration, noting he signed executive orders calling for a wall on the southern border, declaring a national emergency on the border and sending police and military resources to the region.

Trump “created the most secure border in history,” the statement said, and would reinstate several policies that Biden dropped.

Trump would end a policy that allows migrants to live freely in a U.S. community as they await immigration hearings, cease birthright citizenship for the children of migrants in the country without legal authorization — even though an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is interpreted to guarantee that right — and use the military to combat drug cartels, the statement said.

Trump said in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, on Saturday that he would seek to enact the “largest deportation in the history of our country” if elected.

“The first and most urgent action when we win will be the sealing of the border, stopping the invasion, drill baby drill, send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home,” Trump said. “We’ll do all of those things and we’re gonna have to do them fast because no country can sustain what’s happening in our country.”

Garcia, who immigrated to the country as a child, said Trump’s history of racist rhetoric showed he had misplaced priorities on immigration policy.

Trump has used what critics say are racist generalizations of immigrants since his entrance into national politics, a 2015 speech announcing his first White House run in which he made derogatory comments about immigrants from Mexico.

Trump believes “preying on immigrants is his path to reelection,” Garcia said.

“This is a cruel man with a cruel agenda,” he said.

Trump’s “extremism” on immigration would go even further than in his first term, Garcia said.

The former president has talked about returning to the family separation policy at the border, which attracted major controversy in his first term, has expressed support for ending birthright citizenship and said he would act as a dictator for the first day of a potential second term to enact extreme border policies, Garcia said.

Trump and other Republicans have harshly criticized the Biden administration’s approach to immigration, with House Republicans impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this month over his supposed failure to enforce immigration laws.

Garcia called Trump’s approach to the issue “fearmongering.”

“Donald Trump doesn’t give a damn about border security,” he said. “All he cares about is stirring up pain, stirring up division.”