Biden visits US-Mexico border as immigration issue heats up
President Joe Biden visited the US-Mexico border on Sunday for the first time since taking office, tackling one of the most politically charged issues in the country as he prepares for a re-election bid.
His visit was not expected to result in new policies, but rather to demonstrate that he is taking the issue seriously and to strengthen relations with Border Patrol agents, some of whom have bristled at the rollback of hardline enforcement policies by the White House.
His visit to the border comes ahead of a planned North America Summit on Monday and Tuesday (January 9-10) in Mexico with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Biden announced on Thursday (January 5) his administration's plan to block Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants at the border, expanding the nationalities of those who can be expelled back to Mexico.
The long-term goal of Congress reforming America's creaky immigration system is unlikely to succeed given Republicans' newly assumed control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Right-wing lawmakers have repeatedly torpedoed U.S. immigration reform proposals over the past two decades.
Biden sent Congress an immigration reform plan on his first day in office two years ago, but it floundered due to opposition from Republicans, who also blocked his request for $3.5 billion to beef up border enforcement.
Republicans are pushing their own plans for the border following a midterm election in which they seized a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
Texas' Republican Governor, Greg Abbott, met Biden in El Paso and handed him a letter outlining five steps to address the border crisis - including detaining the millions of people in the United States illegally.
Biden, joined by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas met in El Paso with congressional lawmakers, local officials and community leaders.
The White House said Biden is assessing border enforcement operations in El Paso, where the Democratic mayor declared a state of emergency last month, citing hundreds of migrants sleeping on the streets in cold temperatures and thousands being apprehended every day.
US border officials apprehended a record 2.2 million migrants at the border with Mexico in the 2022 fiscal year that ended in September, though that number includes individuals who tried to cross multiple times.
At the same time as he expanded his authority to expel migrants, Biden on Thursday opened legal, limited pathways into the country for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians - allowing up to 30,000 people from those three countries plus Venezuela to enter the country by air each month.
An average of polls gathered by Real Clear Politics shows 37% of the public disapprove of Biden's handling of immigration, a number lower than his overall approval rating.
Reuters
