(USA Features) Former President Donald Trump’s visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Wednesday will draw renewed attention to a key GOP campaign issue heading into the 2022 midterms and beyond.
“Republicans understand what a severe case of invasion and illegal behavior we have at the border. And the Biden administration has done nothing about it,” said Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, who is joining in the tour, according to .
“(Trump) is going to reemphasize that we should continue to build the wall and that catch-and-release needs to be stopped.”
Trump will accompany GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who invited the former president, in a visit to the Rio Grande Valley, a region where the ongoing migrant and drug smuggling crisis is among the worst.
Afterward, Trump and Abbott will then tour newly constructed border wall that was erected during Trump’s term with about two dozen members of the House Republican Study Committee, including Williams and the group’s chair, Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana.
And later, Trump will join Abbott in a townhall-style meeting in a hanger at the South Texas International Airport in Edinburg, an event hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, The Hill added.
The border visit is Trump’s second major event in a week.
Trump staged a rally Saturday in Ohio in support for a Republican primary opponent challenging GOP Rep. Anthony Gonzales, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him following the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol Building.
The former president is also scheduled to attend a large Fourth of July rally at the fairgrounds in Sarasota, Fla., this weekend.
Trump’s border visit comes on the heels of one made by Vice President Kamala Harris, who instead traveled to El Paso and barely spent time near the border. Trump has said he believes Harris only went because he had already announced he would be going at the behest of Abbott.
“Kamala Harris, your vice president, only went to the border yesterday for the one simple reason: that I announced that I was going,” Trump said at Saturday’s rally.
“If I didn’t do that, I don’t know if she was ever going to go.”
One of Trump’s signature issues during his 2016 campaign was focusing on stopping illegal immigration and building a border wall.
The border was essentially secure ahead of his loss to Joe Biden in November but has since become more chaotic and seen record numbers of illegal crossings after the president reversed many of Trump’s enforcement policies.