Washington — President Biden visited the The US-Mexico border on Sunday, his first visit there as president after two years of abuse by Republicans who have killed him is easy on border security during number of immigrants spiral switch.
Inside El Paso, Texas, visited Mr. Biden to an immigration center and walk along the border wall. He was accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, several Democratic members of Congress from the area, the mayor of El Paso and several heads of philanthropic organizations.
Mr. Biden was joined by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who sent a letter to Biden in which Abbott said there were five ways he could address the border crisis. Abbott, who said Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit the region, told reporters that he thought “this is the first visit of the president to the region, after two years of his stay, which is amazing. it’s amazing, it’s exciting.”
El Paso, located in southwest Texas, is currently the largest route for illegal immigration, as many Nicaraguans flee oppression, crime and poverty in their country. . They are among immigrants from four countries who are now being deported under new rules enacted by the Biden administration last week.
The president will meet with local leaders to discuss the decline and increase in the trade of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which are driving many of the tensions in the US.
Andrew Harnik / AP
“The president is very much looking forward to seeing for himself what the state of regional security is,” said John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, before the Biden’s arrival. “It was something he wanted to see for himself.”
The message of Mr. Biden’s focus on homeland security and his visit to the border is part of an effort to defuse political tensions and downplay the impact of upcoming immigration investigations promised by House Republicans. But lasting solutions must be worked out by a divided Congress, which has made several attempts to pass reforms that have failed in recent years.
“All of these actions by the executive branch are temporary relief, whether it’s Title 8, whether it’s Title 42, if we need Congress to act,” Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from Texas who is associated with Mr. Biden in El Paso, said “Build the Nation.”
Escobar said he has “faced a brick wall” from both Republicans and Democrats when trying to implement legislative changes to address border issues.
“The executive branch is not the only branch of government that has to do its job,” he said.
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas offered little praise for Mr. Biden to visit the region, and that is popular in the current political climate.
“He took the time to learn from some of the experts I trust the most, including local and law enforcement officials, landowners, nonprofits, officials and U.S. Customs officials. and Border Protection, and people living in border communities on the front lines of its crisis,” Cornyn said.
John Moore/Getty Images
From Texas, Biden will travel south to Mexico City, where he will meet with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Monday and Sunday for a summit of North American leaders. Immigration is one of the things on the list. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met Biden at the airport on Sunday night and joined him in the presidential motorcade for a visit to Biden’s hotel.
In El Paso, where migrants gather at bus stops and parks before leaving, local officials have increased security ahead of the president’s visit.
“I think they’re trying to send a message that there’s more scrutiny of the people who are written, and if you don’t control it, you’ll get it,” said Ruben Garcia of the Annunciation aid group. House in El Paso.
Immigrants and asylum seekers fleeing violence and persecution have found that protection in the United States is only available to those with money or the ability to find people to support their finances. .
Jose Natera, a Venezuelan immigrant in El Paso who hopes to seek asylum in Canada, said he has no plans to find an American sponsor and is no longer willing to seek asylum in the United States because the fact that he is afraid of being sent to Mexico.
Mexico is “a terrible country where there is crime, corruption, cartels and the police who persecute you,” he said. “They say that people who plan to enter illegally don’t have a chance, but at that time there were no sponsors. … I came to this country to work. I didn’t come here to play. .”
The number of immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border increased significantly during Biden’s first two years in office. There were more than 2.38 million placements in the year ended Sept. 30, the first time the number topped 2 million. The administration has struggled to crack down on crossings, unwilling to follow tough policies like those of the Trump administration.
The policy changed announced this past week The greatest work of Mr. Biden to keep illegal border crossings in check, and thousands of immigrants will be turned away as they arrive at the border. At the same time, 30,000 immigrants each month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela have the opportunity to come to the United States legally when they travel by plane and receive sponsor and pass background checks.
The US will also turn back immigrants who did not seek asylum in the first place in a country where they traveled to the US.
The Biden administration will allow immigrants in central and northern Mexico to make arrangements to seek asylum at a U.S. port of entry through a mobile application, CBP One.
Escobar, the Texas congressman, said most immigrants fleeing their home countries have cell phones, because that’s how they communicate with themselves and their families back home, but said other parts of the US government to do more.
“We need more involvement from the Government Department, especially for those who don’t have access to that kind of technology. We need more education,” he said. “Most of the refugees I’ve talked to, especially in the last two weeks, have no idea what the asylum process is. They think I’m going to the border, I’m going to get a job. . I help my family, it’s a job for all of us. So there’s a lot of work to do.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One that the administration is trying to “invigorate the security and integrity process and cut down on terrorist organizations,” saying the policies “not a ban” but an attempt to protect immigrants from the danger that smuggling can bring.
The changes announced by the president were welcomed by some, especially the leaders of cities where immigrants live. But Mr. Biden by immigration advocacy groups, who accused him of following policies modeled after the previous president.
“I’m having trouble comparing us to Donald Trump,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, pointing to some of his most dangerous policies, including the separation of immigrant children from their parents.
“This is not the president,” he said.
For all his world travel during his 50 years in public service, Mr. Biden spent a lot of time on the US-Mexico border.
The only visit the White House can point to is when he drove through the area while campaigning for president in 2008. He sent Vice President Kamala Harris to El Paso in 2021, but was criticized for mostly canceling the job, because El Paso. it is not the center of intersections now.
President Barack Obama visited El Paso in 2011, where he attended border operations and the Paso Del Norte International Bridge, but was later criticized for not returning after crossing There are thousands of minors who do not travel to the US from Mexico.
Trump, who has made immigration a signature issue, has visited the region several times. On one trip, he went into a small police station to check on the money and drugs confiscated by the dealers. During a trip to McAllen, Texas, the center of the growing conflict, he made one of his most frequent claims that Mexico would pay to build a border wall.
American taxpayers ended up footing the bill after Mexican officials rejected the idea.
“NO,” Enrique Peña Nieto, the president of Mexico at the time, tweeted in May 2018. “Mexico will not pay for the wall. Not this time, never. Please, Mexico (we all).”
