WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans to travel to El Paso, Texas, on Sunday as the White House pushes for new measures aimed at halting historic immigration, criticizing his administration for Not enough.
Biden will handle border enforcement operations during his visit — his first as president — and meet with local officials, who discussed the plans ahead of the president’s speech on Thursday, according to senior administration officials.
Biden will also call on Congress to fully fund his border security budget request and pass legislation to overhaul the immigration system.
The visit, ahead of his visit to Mexico next week, coincides with a speech on Thursday in which Biden will lay out new policy initiatives that the White House has described as unprecedented to tighten border controls while expanding access to the U.S. legal channels
what biden announced
- The U.S. will send migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba back to Mexico in exchange for admitting as many as 30,000 a month from those countries that have sponsored and passed background checks. It was an expansion of a similar policy against Venezuela that began in October, leading to a decline in the number of Venezuelans trying to enter the U.S. illegally, according to the government.
- The United States will take in 20,000 refugees from Latin American and Caribbean countries over the next two years, which the government says will more than triple the number of refugees from the western hemisphere.
- Immigrants who try to enter the U.S. without permission and cannot be deported under the Title 42 pandemic policy will increasingly be subject to “expedited removal” and a five-year bar from re-entry.
why is it important
Biden is under pressure to detail his plan to deal with a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Border security is a top priority for Republicans, who took control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections and criticized Biden for not visiting the border. Republicans also vowed to investigate the administration’s handling of the issue.
the background
- Mexico trip: Biden is JANUARY 9-10 TO MEXICO Meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador. White House spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that immigration would be “the number one issue they will discuss.” Other priorities are climate change and drug smuggling, including the flow of fentanyl across borders.
- State of emergency: El Paso Mayor Oscar Lesser declares state of emergency Last month, Border Patrol released more than 10,000 asylum seekers and other immigrants in one week. Hundreds of people slept on city streets.
- Title 42: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Last month it warned of “total chaos” At the border if the pandemic policy that allowed the federal government to quickly deport immigrants is allowed to end. The Supreme Court said the Section 42 policy must continue while the court evaluated lawsuits brought by Republican officials in 19 states who wanted to keep Section 42.
- Vice President Harris: Vice President Kamala Harris’ early mandate in the administration was to Addressing the root causes of migration, attended his speech.
big picture
Alongside the new executive action, Biden continued to argue that there are underlying problems with the immigration system that can only be fixed through legislative action. But there is no sign that a divided Congress can reach a bipartisan agreement on such a politically charged issue.
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