President Joe Biden inspected a busy port of entry along the US-Mexico border on Sunday, his first visit to the region after two years in office as Republicans hammered him for being soft on border security while the spiral Number of migrants crossing.
Mr Biden watched in El Paso as border officials searched vehicles carrying drugs, money and other contraband. In a sign of deepening political tensions over immigration, Republican Governor Greg Abbott handed Mr Biden a letter upon his arrival saying the “chaos” at the border was a “direct result” of the president’s failure to enforce federal laws.
Mr Biden plans to spend a few hours in the city, which is currently the largest corridor for illegal crossings, in large part by Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime and poverty in their home country. They are among immigrants from four countries subject to accelerated removal under new rules implemented last week by the Biden administration, which drew strong criticism from immigration advocates.
The president met with border officials to discuss migration as well as increased trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which are driving the skyrocketing number of overdoses in the US.
Read also: Biden tightens limit, introduces legal route for 30,000 people a month
Mr. Biden was scheduled to visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center and meet with non-profit and religious groups that support immigrants coming to America. It was not clear whether Mr. Biden would speak to any expatriates.
A large “Welcome to Mexico” sign hangs on the Bridge of the Americas as President Joe Biden, second from left, talks with US Customs and Border Protection officials as they enter the El Paso Port of Entry , tour the Bridge of the Americas, a busy El Paso port of entry along the US-Mexico border in Texas. , Photo Credit: AP
Mr Biden’s announcement on border security and his visit to the border are aimed at reducing political noise and blunting the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration promised by House Republicans. But any lasting solution will require action by an increasingly divided Congress, where several attempts in recent years to enact sweeping changes have failed.
From El Paso, Mr. Biden was to head south to Mexico City, where he and the leaders of Mexico and Canada will gather for a summit of North American leaders on Monday and Tuesday. Immigration is among the items on the agenda. The challenge facing the US on its southern border requires cooperation among many countries, a sign that diplomacy will matter as much as internal US policies.
Editorial | The Fallout of Policy Failure: On the American Migrant Tragedy
In El Paso, where migrants congregate at bus stops and parks before making the trip, Border Patrol agents have increased security ahead of Biden’s visit.
“I think they’re trying to send a message that they’re going to be checking people’s documented status more consistently, and if you’re not processed they’re going to take you,” Annunciation House Support Group said Ruben Garcia of El Paso.
Migrants and asylum seekers fleeing violence and persecution have increasingly found that safety in the United States is primarily available to those who have the money or the financial savvy to find someone to provide for them.
Jose Natera, a Venezuelan migrant in El Paso who hopes to seek asylum in Canada, said he has no prospects of finding a US sponsor and is now reluctant to seek asylum in the US because he fears being deported to Mexico Is.
Mexico is “a terrible country with crime, corruption, cartels and even the police come after you,” he said. “They say people who think of entering illegally won’t have a chance, but at the same time I don’t have a sponsor. … I came to this country to work. I didn’t come here to play.”
The number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border has increased dramatically during Mr Biden’s first two years in office. There were more than 2.38 million stops during the year ending September 30, the first time the number topped 2 million. The administration has struggled to hold sway over the crossing, reluctant to take drastic measures that would resemble those of the Trump administration.
The policy changes, announced last week, are Biden’s biggest move yet to crack down on illegal border crossings and will turn away thousands of migrants coming to the border. And 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela will have a chance to come to the US legally as long as they travel by plane, get a sponsor and pass a background check.
The US will also turn back migrants who do not seek asylum first in the country they travel to via the US route. -Scheduled date and time.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Air Force One that the administration was trying to “safely and systematically encourage and dismantle trafficking organizations”, adding that the policies were “not restrictive at all”. , but rather an attempt to protect migrants from the trauma that trafficking can create.
The changes were welcomed by some, especially leaders in cities where the influx of migrants has been concentrated. But Mr. Biden was vilified by immigrant advocate groups, who accused him of following the former president’s measures. Administration officials disputed that characterization.
For all his international travels in his more than 50 years in public service, Mr. Biden hasn’t spent much time at the US-Mexico border.
The only trip the White House could point to was Mr. Biden’s drive while campaigning for the presidency in 2008. El Paso was not the center of the crossing that it is now.
President Barack Obama traveled to El Paso in 2011, where he visited border operations and the Paso del Norte international bridge, but was criticized for not returning later as tens of thousands of minors entered the US from Mexico.
Trump, who has made tough immigration a signature issue, has made several trips to the border. During one visit, he was crammed into a small border station to inspect cash and drugs seized by agents. During a visit to McAllen, Texas, then the epicenter of the growing crisis, he made one of his most oft-repeated claims that Mexico would pay to build a border wall.
American taxpayers footed the bill after Mexican leaders outright rejected the idea.