During his several-hour visit Sunday in the city of El Paso, Biden met border officials and walked along the border wall with Mexico. The Democrat was greeted rather coldly by Texas Governor Greg Abbott at the border town’s airport. The Republican handed Biden a letter in which he seriously accused the government. The visit comes two years too late, Biden’s “failure” is responsible for the “chaos” at the border. El Paso had recently become a focal point of migration to the United States – the situation had deteriorated dramatically by December.
Abbott made public the letter he had given to Biden immediately afterwards. “Their open borders policy has emboldened the cartels that get rich from the trade in deadly fentanyl and even people,” it said. The United States has experienced “the worst illegal immigration” in the country’s history. The Texans would pay a particularly high price for this. In El Paso, migrant camps were evacuated specifically for Biden’s visit, Abbott said.
The Republican demanded that construction of the border wall in Texas be resumed immediately. As one of his first acts in office, Biden tapped into the genuine concerns of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. Strictly speaking, the wall with its tall metal pillars is more of a fence than a wall.
Biden has been repeatedly sharply attacked by Republicans over the situation at the border. Republican governors of several states in the southern United States — including Abbott — had repeatedly sent busloads of migrants last year to democratically governed states like New York or the capital Washington to pressure Biden. The White House then compared the governors to smugglers.
Biden now visited a border crossing on the US-Mexico border in El Paso. He also had border officials show him how to search these vehicles. He got an idea of a facility where aid organizations take care of arriving migrants. According to the accompanying press, the employees there made it clear that they needed more financial support. Biden therefore did not meet any migrants during his trip to exchange ideas with them.
With the high number of migrants, both local authorities and local aid organizations are overwhelmed. In El Paso there is not enough housing for the people. At the U.S.-Mexico border, the U.S. Border Protection Agency recorded more than two million attempts by people to enter the U.S. between October 2021 and October 2022. According to statistics, the number of migrants who are not from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is growing. More and more people are coming from Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Thousands of migrants are currently waiting at the US border, hoping for a chance to enter the country. The US Supreme Court recently ruled that the controversial Title 42 directive should remain in force for the time being. The regulation stipulates that most undocumented migrants will be immediately rejected at the border without even being able to apply for asylum. This should initially contain the spread of the corona pandemic. Meanwhile, politicians and authorities in the US mainly fear a sharp increase in migration if the directive is withdrawn.
Given the dramatic situation and ongoing criticism, Biden had recently launched a new effort to curb illegal immigration to the US and announced new rules. Under the law, up to 30,000 migrants per month from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti can legally enter the US under certain conditions. In return, 30,000 illegal immigrants from these countries will be deported to Mexico every month.
Biden traveled on to Mexico on Sunday. He plans to meet Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday for the annual North American summit. A bilateral meeting between Biden and López Obrador is already on the agenda for this Monday, and another talk between Trudeau and López Obrador for Wednesday.
According to the Mexican government, the summit will focus on safety, environment, health, diversity and competitiveness. However, the main problem is probably migration. The Mexican president supported the new American initiative. It gives migrants the chance to legally enter the United States, preventing the often dangerous journey through Mexico and illegal border crossings. Migrants in Mexico are repeatedly victims of criminal organizations that kidnap, rob or rape them.
Mexico plans to propose an “alliance for the prosperity of the peoples of America” at the summit, Secretary of State Marcelo Ebrard announced. The aim is to combat poverty in the region and to distribute wealth more equitably. It must first and foremost be about combating the causes of migration. The US government presented a similar program at the America Summit last year with the ‘American Partnership for Economic Prosperity’. Supply chains need to be strengthened, investment simplified and jobs created in renewable energy.
(SDA)