President Joe Biden defended himself from criticism that he should visit the southern border while he is in Arizona.
“There are more important things going on,” Biden told reporters Tuesday on the White House South Lawn. “They’re going to invest billions of dollars in the new enterprise in the state.”
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Biden is traveling to Phoenix to help Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company announce its plans for a second microchip facility in the state, increasing its commitment from $12 billion to $40 billion, one of the country’s largest foreign direct investments.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was needled during Monday’s press briefing about why Biden was flying to Arizona, but not spending time at the border while in the state.
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“Let’s have a bipartisan agreement on immigration, instead of doing political stunts, instead of doing what they’re doing: going to the border, not actually coming up with any real ideas about that,” she said. “He’s going to actually focus on an issue, a bipartisan issue that was voted in Congress, the CHIPS and Science Act, something that is going to deliver for the people in Arizona, creating jobs and making people’s lives better, and making sure that we are bringing manufacturing back into the U.S.”
At least 207,000 illegal immigrants were stopped by Border Patrol last month, according to Customs and Border Protection data, down from 231,000 in October.
