WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will travel to US-Mexico border On Sunday, it was his first visit as president after Republicans blasted him for two years softening of border security although Number of migrants crossing the spiral.
how many hours will biden take El Paso, TexasCurrently Largest corridor for illegal border crossing, in large part due to Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime and poverty in their country. They are among immigrants from four countries now being fast-tracked for deportation. New rules enacted by the Biden administration This has drawn strong criticism from immigration advocates over the past week.
The president is expected to meet with border officials to discuss immigration and the rise in human trafficking. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioidsleading to a spike in drug overdoses in the U.S.
Biden will visit the El Paso County Immigrant Services Center and meet with nonprofits and religious groups that support the arrival of immigrants to the U.S. It was unclear whether Biden would speak to any of the immigrants.
“The president is very much looking forward to witnessing the security situation at the border,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “It’s something he wants to see for himself.”
Biden’s statements on border security and his visit to the border were partly an attempt to silence political noise and blunt the impact of an upcoming immigration probe promised by House Republicans. But any lasting solution will require action from a deeply divided Congress, which has failed several times in recent years to enact sweeping changes.
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas offered weak praise for Biden’s decision to visit the border, notable even in the current political climate.
“He had to take the time to learn from some of the experts I rely on most, including local officials and law enforcement, landowners, nonprofits, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and agents, and people who make their living in border communities. He on the front lines of the crisis,” Cornyn said.
From El Paso, Biden will continue south to Mexico City, where He’s meeting leaders from Mexico and Canada A summit of North American leaders is held on Monday and Tuesday. Immigration was one of the items on the agenda.
The challenges facing the United States on its southern border “are not unique to the United States. It captures the hemisphere. Regional challenges require regional solutions,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. Biden told ABC’s “This Week” ahead of his trip.
In El Paso, migrants congregated at bus stops and parks before departing, and Border Patrol agents ramped up security ahead of Biden’s visit.
“I think they’re trying to send a message that they’re going to check people’s record status more consistently and if you don’t get processed, they pick you up,” said Ruben Garcia of the Annunciation House aid group. El Paso.
Immigrants and asylum seekers fleeing violence and persecution are increasingly finding that in the United States, protections are available primarily to the wealthy or the savvy, who can find someone to sponsor them financially.
Jose Natera, a Venezuelan immigrant from El Paso who hopes to seek asylum in Canada, said he has no hope of finding a U.S. sponsor and is reluctant to seek asylum in the U.S. now because he fears being sent to Mexico .
Mexico “is a horrible country where you have crime, corruption, cartels, and even the police will persecute you,” he said. “They say people who want to come in illegally don’t have a chance, but at the same time I don’t have a sponsor. … I’m in this country to work. I’m not here to play.”
During Biden’s first two years in office, the number of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border increased dramatically. In the year ended Sept. 30, more than 2.38 million parking trips were made, breaking the 2 million mark for the first time. The administration has been working hard to clamp down on the border crossing, reluctant to take tough steps similar to those of the Trump administration.
The policy change, announced last week, is Biden’s biggest move yet to curb illegal border crossings and will deny tens of thousands of migrants who arrive at the border. Meanwhile, 30,000 immigrants a month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela have the opportunity to come to the United States legally as long as they fly, get a sponsor and pass a background check.
The U.S. will also deny migrants who do not first seek asylum in countries they pass through on their way to the U.S.
The changes have been welcomed by some, especially leaders in cities with high concentrations of immigrants. But Biden has been condemned by immigration advocacy groups who have accused him of taking steps that emulate those of the previous president.
“I really disagree with comparing us to Donald Trump,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, referring to some of his most maligned policies, including immigration. Separation of children from their parents.
“This is not that president,” she said.
In all of Biden’s international travel during his 50 years of public service, he has spent little time at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The only visit the White House can point to is when Biden drove across the border during his 2008 presidential campaign.he sent Vice President Kamala Harris to head to El Paso in 2021But she’s been criticized for largely bypassing the action, since El Paso isn’t the center of the intersection right now.
President Barack Obama visited El Paso in 2011where he toured Border Operations and the Paso Del Norte International Bridge, but he was later criticized for not returning as tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors crossed into the U.S. from Mexico.
Trump has made ramping up immigration a signature issue, making multiple trips to the border. During one visit, he squeezed into a small border post to check for cash and drugs confiscated by agents. During a trip to McAllen, Texasthen at the center of a growing crisis, he made one of his most oft-repeated claims that Mexico would pay for the construction of a border wall.
US taxpayer Buy after the end Mexico’s leaders flatly rejected the idea.
“No,” Enrique Peña Nieto, then Mexico’s president, tweeted in May 2018. “Mexico will never pay for the Wall. Not now, never. Sincerely, Mexico (all of us).”
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Associated Press writer Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
