First Lady Jill Biden visits Tampa, and illegal border crossings are down.

First lady Jill Biden rallies veterans, military families to boost her husband's reelection bid

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden on Monday embarked on a tour of battleground states to tout a new initiative aimed at boosting outreach among veterans and military families in an effort to boost her husband’s reelection bid.

Biden is celebrating the launch of Veterans and Military Families for Biden-Harris with a one-day, three-state swing through Florida, North Carolina and Georgia — three states with large populations of veterans and military families, as well as three battlegrounds that could propel President Joe Biden to victory in November over former President Donald Trump.

At her first event in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Monday, Jill Biden echoed her husband's oft-used refrain that the country's most "sacred obligation" is to its service members and their families.

"Four years ago, Joe went from being a military father to being commander-in-chief," she said, referencing their son Beau, who served in Iraq as part of the Delaware Army National Guard. "It's a responsibility he stepped into with pride, because, as Joe reminds everyone any chance he gets, our U.S. military is the finest fighting military force in the history of the world. Of all the obligations that Joe has shouldered since he took his oath of office, he believes the only truly one sacred obligation is to prepare those we send into harm's way, and to care for them and their families when they come home."

She went on to highlight a number of pro-military and veteran initiatives that the Democratic president has undertaken during his first term, including signing into law the PACT Act, a landmark law that expands toxic exposure benefits for veterans, and ending the war in Afghanistan.

"As commander-in-chief, President Biden wakes up every morning ready to work for you," the first lady said. "That's what this election is all about: You. For all the talk out there about this race, Joe has made it clear that he's all in."

The first lady’s barnstorming campaign trip comes amid calls from some Democrats for her husband to step aside as the party’s nominee after his shaky performance in last week’s presidential debate. President Biden has repeatedly insisted that he is staying in the race, most recently on Monday when he sent a letter to Democrats in Congress that he is “firmly committed to staying in the race” and called for the recent intraparty drama “to end.”

Jill Biden — whose father was a Navy signalman in World War II — was also set to travel to Tampa, Florida, and Columbus, Georgia, on Monday, the campaign said. The campaign also said it will hold events in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Erie, Harrisburg and Pittston, Pennsylvania.

Biden tells Hill Democrats he 'declines' to step aside and says it's time for party drama 'to end'

President Joe Biden, in a letter to congressional Democrats, stood firm against calls for him to drop his candidacy and called for an "end" to the intraparty drama that has torn apart Democrats since his dismal public debate performance.

Biden's efforts to shore up a deeply anxious Democratic Party came Monday as lawmakers are returning to Washington and confronting a choice: decide whether to work to revive his campaign, or edge out the party leader, a make-or-break time for his reelection and their own political futures.

Biden wrote in the two-page letter that "the question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it's time for it to end." He stressed that the party has "one job," which is to defeat presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November.

"We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election," Biden said in the letter, distributed by his reelection campaign. "Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It's time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump."

Anxiety is running high as top-ranking Democratic lawmakers are joining calls for Biden to step aside despite his defiance. At the same time, some of the president's most staunch supporters are redoubling the fight for Biden's presidency, insisting there's no one better to beat Trump in what many see as among the most important elections of a lifetime.

As lawmakers weigh whether Biden should stay or go, there appear to be no easy answers.

It's a tenuous and highly volatile juncture for the president's party. Democrats who have worked alongside Biden for years — if not decades — and cherished his life's work on policy priorities are now entertaining uncomfortable questions about his political future. And it's unfolding as Biden hosts world leaders for the NATO summit this week in Washington.

Illegal border crossings decrease

Since President Joe Biden signed an executive order last month to curtail asylum, the number of illegal border crossings has plummeted.

The Biden administration attributes the sharp drop to the president’s new policies limiting asylum.

CBS News was the first to report that the border patrol processed 84,000 migrants who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico last month without authorization.

That’s the lowest since Biden’s first month in office, in 2021.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said his agency organized more than 100 deportation flights to more than 20 countries, and removed more than 24,000 people since the executive order.

“The President took action," Mayorkas said. "The border security steps we’ve taken over the past eighteen months are bringing order."

For years, Republicans have been blaming Biden for conditions at the border, creating a huge political liability for the president.

The attacks have been a staple of former President Donald Trump’s campaign, most recently at least week’s debate.

“The border. All he had to do was leave it. All he had to do was leave it,” Trump said during the debate.

“After big policy changes, we often do see a decrease in border apprehensions, and then, it’s called a sort of a wait and see period," said Migration Policy Institute associate policy analyst Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh. "And so we don’t know what will happen in the coming weeks. It is possible that border apprehensions could increase, depending on how this policy is actually being carried out in practice."

It’s also unclear how long the policy will be in place. 

Although Biden’s policy includes an expansion of legal immigration pathways, immigration advocates are mounting legal challenges to it. 

Immigration analysts say unlawful border crossings have been dropping for months and that Biden’s new policy is not the only reason for the three-year low in June. They cite more asylum seekers making appointments at ports of entry using the Biden administration’s mobile app, as well as increased enforcement by Mexico to deter illegal crossings.