Biden walks US-Mexico border on trip to Texas

Washington — Visited by President Biden At the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, his first visit as president and after a two-year haunt by Republicans, Number of immigrants intersecting spirals.

of El Paso, Texas, Biden visited immigration centers and walked along the border wall. He was accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas, several Democratic legislators from the area, the mayor of El Paso, and several local heads of charities.

Biden was greeted by Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, who handed him a letter outlining five ways to deal with the border crisis. Abbott, who called on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit the border, told reporters, “This is the first time a president has visited the border after two years in office, and it’s amazing.” Told. And amazing and outrageous. “

El Paso, located in the southwestern tip of Texas, is currently the largest corridor of illegal immigration for Nicaraguans as they flee oppression, crime and poverty in their own country. They are among immigrants from four countries currently subject to expedited deportation under new rules enacted by the Biden administration last week.

The president was scheduled to meet with border officials to discuss immigration and the increasing trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

President Joe Biden speaks with Texas Democrat Rep. Henry Queller, second from left, while walking along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas is right.

Andrew Harnik/AP


White House National Security Press Secretary John Kirby said ahead of Biden’s arrival, “The president is very much looking forward to seeing with his own eyes what the state of border security is going to be like. ‘ said. “This is what he wanted to see with his own eyes.”

Biden’s border security announcement and his border visit are meant to defuse political turmoil and blunt the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration pledged by House Republicans. But a lasting solution will require action by a deeply divided Congress, and in recent years multiple efforts to enact sweeping changes have failed.

Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar, who is joining Trump, said, “All of the executive branch’s efforts are just temporary band-aids. It’s when we need to make sure that we act on it,” he said. El Paso’s Biden, “Face the Nation,” he said.

Escobar said he had “hit a brick wall” from Republicans and Democrats while trying to implement legislative changes to address border issues.

“The executive branch is not the only agency that needs to do its job,” she said.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Senator John Cornyn of Texas hinted at Biden’s decision to visit the border.

“He took the time to talk to local officials and law enforcement, landowners, non-profit organizations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and agents, and people who make a living in border communities. He needs to learn from the experts he trusts the most, who are at the forefront of his crisis,” Konin said.

Texas National Guard patrols the US-Mexico border as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 7, 2023.

John Moore/Getty Images


From El Paso, Mr. Biden will head south to Mexico City, where Mr. Biden and the leaders of Mexico and Canada will meet on Monday and Tuesday for the North American summit. Immigration is one item on the agenda.

In El Paso, where migrants congregate at bus stops and parks before moving, border patrol officers stepped up security ahead of the president’s visit.

Ruben Garcia, of the Annunciation House aid group, said: “They are more consistently checking the status of people documented and trying to send a message saying they’ll pick you up if it’s not being processed. I think there is.” El Paso.

For immigrants and asylum seekers fleeing violence or persecution, protection in the U.S. is primarily available to those who have the money or are adept at finding financial security. I noticed more.

Jose Natera, a Venezuelan immigrant living in El Paso and seeking asylum in Canada, is reluctant to seek asylum in the United States because he has no hope of finding a US sponsor and is now afraid of being sent to Mexico. He said that it was

“Mexico is a horrible country with crime, corruption, cartels and police persecution,” he said. “People who are thinking of going illegally are told they have no chance, but at the same time I have no sponsors…I came to this country to work, not to play.”

The number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is rose dramatically Biden’s first two years in office. His one-year stoppages through September 30 put him over 2.38 million, the first time he topped 2 million. The administration has been reluctant to take a Trump administration-like hard line and has struggled to crack down on border crossings.

policy change announced last week It’s Biden’s biggest move yet to close down illegal border crossings, which will dislodge tens of thousands of migrants arriving 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, as long as they fly, get a sponsorship, and pass a background check.

US also rejects immigrants who do not first seek asylum in countries they transit en route to US

The Biden administration will allow immigrants in central and northern Mexico to schedule asylum-seeking appointments at U.S. ports of entry through the mobile phone app CBP One.

Texas Congressman Escobar said most immigrants who fled their home country have cell phones because it’s how they communicate with each other and their families at home, but she urged other aspects of the U.S. government to do more.

“The State Department needs to be much more involved, especially for those who don’t have access to that kind of technology. We need more education,” she said. “Many of the refugees I’ve spoken to, especially in the last few weeks, have no concept of what the asylum process is. Their idea is, I’m going to the border, I’m going to get a job…and , I’m going to help my family. Of course, it’s something we all do.So I have a lot of work to do.

The changes announced by the president were welcomed by some, especially leaders in cities with high concentrations of immigrants. But Biden was criticized by immigration advocacy groups, who accused him of modeling his actions on the former president’s actions.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, pointing to some of his most defamatory policies, including separating immigrant children from their parents, “comparing us to Donald Trump. is a problem,” he said.

“This is not that president,” she said.

In all of his 50 years of international travel as a public servant, Mr. Biden has never spent much time on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The only visit the White House can point to was his drive to the border while running for president in 2008. He sent Vice President Kamala Harris to El Paso in her 2021, but she was criticized for largely evading her actions. It wasn’t in the center of an intersection like it is now.

President Barack Obama Traveled to El Paso in 2011he inspected Border Operations and the Paso del Norte International Bridge, but was later criticized for not returning home as tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors crossed from Mexico to the United States.

Trump, who has made immigration hardening a signature issue, has made several trips to the border. During one visit, he packed into a small border station to inspect cash and drugs confiscated by agents. During a trip to McAllen, Texas, which was at the center of the growing crisis at the time, he made one of his most frequently repeated claims that Mexico would pay to build a border wall. rice field.

After Mexican leaders flatly rejected the idea, American taxpayers were set to introduce the bill.

“No,” then-President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted in May 2018.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-el-paso-texas-visit-us-mexico-border/ Biden walks US-Mexico border on trip to Texas

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