President Joe Biden arrived in the border town of El Paso, Texas this Sunday on his first trip there as president and amid a crisis that has sparked the number of migrants crossing from Mexico onto US soil every day.
Biden was welcomed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who delivered a letter to the president proposing “five solutions that already exist under current US law,” he told reporters.
“We are very pleased that the President is here,” he said.
The President then went to the Bridge of the Americas border crossing in El Paso, where he spoke with officers from United States Customs and Border Protection.[oluegoalcrucefronterizoPuentedelasAméricasenElPasodondeconversóconagentesdelapolicíadeAduanasyProtecciónFronterizadeEstadosUnidos[oluegoalcrucefronterizoPuentedelasAméricasenElPasodondeconversóconagentesdelapolicíadeAduanasyProtecciónFronterizadeEstadosUnidos
Biden was scheduled to pay a roughly three-hour visit to El Paso, currently the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings, due in large part to the irregular migration of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans fleeing oppression, crime and violence in their countries.
“Our frontier communities represent the best of our nation’s bounty, and we will earn them more support as we expand legal avenues for orderly immigration and limit illegal immigration,” Biden wrote on his official Twitter account before giving his journey to the US border.
Immigrants from these four countries are now subject to expedited deportation if they enter the United States illegally. Instead they can apply for a humanitarian permit for temporary staywith a sponsor in the US to legally participate in a program that Venezuelans have been benefiting from since last October.
Program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. (USCIS.gov)
Biden, along with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, will host a meeting with members of Congress, local officials and community leaders to assess border control operations in El Paso, where the Democratic mayor last month declared a state of emergency and declared hundreds of immigrants asleep on the Streets in cold temperatures and thousands of detainees every day, the Portal news agency reported.
However, President Biden’s brief visit will not be enough to provide a first-hand account of the plight of migrants stranded there awaiting resolution of their cases, the Border Network director said in an interview with the Voice of America. for Human Rights, Fernando García.
“Unfortunately it will be a rush visit and I don’t think he will have the time to understand what is happening at the border. He will only be there for three hours, we would have liked him to come with more time and before announcing any plans he would have met with border actors and not done so,” the activist said.
Meanwhile, across the border, expectations are growing for thousands hoping to enter the United States. “It is good for us that President Biden is coming and seeing the reality that we are experiencing,” the Venezuelan migrant told the EFE news agency.
U.S. border officials detained a record 2.2 million immigrants at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022, which ended September 30.
A migrant, center, receives a hot meal from volunteers in front of Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, Texas, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. (AP/Andres Leighton)
According to reports from the Customs and Border Protection Agency, more than 53,000 arrests were made by border guards in the El Paso sector last November alone.
Ahead of his visit, the President will also meet with border officials to discuss the immigration crisis.
From El Paso, Biden will travel to Mexico City, where he will hold meetings with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López-Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a summit with immigration as one of the agenda items. They will also discuss the increasing trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which are causing skyrocketing drug overdoses in the United States, the Associated Press said.
(Includes information from Portal, AP and EFE)