For years, Republicans have assailed President Biden and Democrats for policies they say are too lax on curbing immigration and tamping down on violent crime.
This week, with a trip to the border planned and remarks delivered next to police chiefs assembled at the White House on Wednesday, Mr. Biden is trying to change the conversation, saying he is making progress on those very issues despite Republican intransigence.
In remarks at the White House, Mr. Biden said that a stimulus package passed without Republican support during the coronavirus pandemic had made $350 billion available to local communities across the United States. There was flexibility with how the funds could be spent, but Mr. Biden has pressed repeatedly for them to be used to bolster local law enforcement efforts.
“Thanks to my American Rescue Plan, which I might note, not a single person on the other team voted for, we provided $350 billion — $350 billion — that was available to deal with these issues,” Mr. Biden said, referring to Republican inaction on his signature legislation. “On top of that, we’re hiring more U.S. attorneys, recruiting more U.S. marshals, investing more in technology and training to clear the court backlogs, solve murders and deal with apprehending violent fugitives.”
Mr. Biden appeared intent on pushing back against Republicans who have used crime and immigration to say that policies favored by the president and many Democrats have only led to an increase in crime, some of it fueled by undocumented immigrants. The president has gone on the offensive over both issues, and recent crime data has provided Mr. Biden with a boost: Homicides and shootings declined nationwide in 2023.
But those numbers remain higher than they were before the coronavirus pandemic, and coverage of mass shootings, including in large cities like Chicago, continues to dominate the news.
Mr. Biden’s aides have tried to spotlight Republican-led attacks against the F.B.I. amid federal investigations into former President Donald J. Trump as proof that the G.O.P. is attacking federal law enforcement.
Mr. Biden has also increasingly taken a page out of the Republican playbook by accusing the G.O.P. of neglecting the border crisis after House Republicans opposed a bipartisan Senate immigration bill. Many of those Republicans were loath to give an election-year win to Mr. Biden on an issue that they prefer to use as political ammunition.
Mr. Biden has tried to show that he is a defender and funder of the police in the face of Republican attacks that he is weak on law and order. In a closed-door meeting, Mr. Biden told the police leaders that he was still pushing for an assault weapons bill and “underscored the importance of community policing,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which advises departments on best practices.
Mr. Biden asked the police chiefs how they felt about teams of mental health professionals responding to some emergency calls instead of police officers, Mr. Wexler said. The president also told the room that there was a perception among Americans that the nation faced a problem with retail crime and asked the leaders for their views. Mr. Biden did not preview any new policy announcements to the police officials.
The meeting felt like when police chiefs “first encountered Senator Joe Biden and he was pushing the crime bill, assault weapons bill and community policing,” Mr. Wexler said. “Here we are 30 years later.”
That 1994 crime bill proved to be a political liability for Mr. Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign. Many experts say it fueled mass incarceration, although the administration continued to defend some aspects of the bill that banned assault weapons and supported drug courts for first-time offenders.
When he came into office, Mr. Biden emphasized that by investing in law enforcement, he could strike a balance between fighting crime and seeking police accountability.
Some advocates have said that the Biden administration needs to work harder to ensure that the federal funds are being used appropriately. While the administration has said states have spent billions of dollars in pandemic relief funds on such initiatives, a report from the University of Illinois, Chicago, found that some local governments were funneling funds into police departments even while reporting the expenditures as investments in community violence intervention programs.
Mr. Biden also issued an executive order last year on police reform, although it mainly directly affected federal law enforcement. After a delay, he also started a police accountability database in December.
“Our plan’s working, and we still have much more to do, as everyone at this table knows,” Mr. Biden said on Wednesday, adding, “My administration is going to choose progress over politics, and communities across the country are safer.”
Republicans, for their part, pushed back against Mr. Biden’s efforts.
“Violent crime is ravaging our cities because of Joe Biden and Democrats’ pro-criminal policies,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement released on Wednesday. “It’s no wonder why people feel less safe than when Biden took office: He will always prioritize criminals over families, and he’s not up for the job.”
