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the president is joe biden Heading to the US-Mexico border on Sunday After major policy announcements and sustained calls from Republicans who Believe that travel is overdue.
The trip to the border – the first for Biden since taking office – comes as the administration wrestles with a growing number of migrants, overwhelming federal and local resources. Republicans, some border-district Democrats in Congress and even Democratic mayors have criticized Biden for failing to address the record cross-border levels.
With his trip to El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, Biden is seizing on an issue that has been a political liability for his administration, while calling on Congress to overhaul the US immigration system to meet current needs did.
But the patchwork of policies the administration has put in place so far for border management has often put Biden at odds with his own allies, who argue the administration’s approach is too onerous.
Responding to the latest policy announcements, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus told CNN, “It is very sad and sad to see a Democratic administration make it harder for vulnerable people to seek refuge because they are angry on this issue.” Afraid of voters.” ,
Previewing the trip, a White House official said the president would meet with “federal, state and local officials and community leaders dealing with the new migration crisis affecting the entire Western Hemisphere with record numbers of people fleeing political persecution.” Has been a key participant in the management of challenges and mass violence in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba.” The President is scheduled to spend about three hours on the ground.
Biden will evaluate border enforcement operations, visit the Bridge of the Americas port of entry with Customs and Border Protection officials, members of Congress and local officials and law enforcement.
The White House said it is the busiest port in El Paso and received $600 million under bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
Biden will then visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center to meet with local officials, religious leaders and non-governmental organizations, “who have been critical in supporting migrants fleeing political persecution and economic collapse in their home countries”. ”
The official said the president will also spend time with local business leaders to hear about the economic impact of migration and labor shortages in the region.
Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas will also join Biden; Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar, Henry Cuellar and Vincent Gonzalez, all Democrats; The Big Step Oscar Leeser; El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego; and additional community and business leaders.
Mayorkas on Sunday defended Biden’s approach to addressing the migrant surge at the southern border, saying the administration was acting in a humane but necessary manner.
Mayorkas told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” “We are dealing with a broken immigration system that Congress has failed to fix for decades, and there is unanimity regarding that reality.” entire western hemisphere.
“We want individuals who are eligible for relief under our laws to come to the United States in a safe and orderly manner. And that is why we are creating legal avenues to keep people from putting their lives and their savings in the hands of ruthless traffickers. Don’t have to hand over,” he said.
The massive movement to the Western Hemisphere poses an immediate challenge for Biden, who in his first few months in office faced a surge of unaccompanied migrant children at the border and, later, the sudden arrival of thousands of Haitian migrants.
Since 2021, there have been more than 2.4 million arrests at the US-Mexico border, according to US Customs and Border Protection data. This includes those who have attempted to cross more than once. Many under a Trump-era Covid ban known as Title 42 that allows federal officials to round up migrants Quickly, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.
The arrival of thousands of migrants has strained border communities, including El Paso’s. The city prides itself on being a welcoming place for immigrants, but has been overwhelmed in recent months by the sudden arrival of thousands of migrants, straining local resources and pleading for federal aid.
Concern about the scheduled end of Title 42 has prompted thousands of migrants in recent weeks to turn themselves in to border officials or to cross into the United States illegally at very short notice.
The policy was set to lift last month, But the Supreme Court’s decision Kept the rule in place while legal challenges were ongoing in court.
Federal data shared with CNN indicate there has been a sharp drop in migrant encounters in El Paso since December, when thousands crossed over on a daily basis.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, there have been an average of fewer than 700 daily encounters over the past few days, compared to nearly 2,500 at its peak in December.
DHS said it deployed 100 additional personnel to the El Paso area in December and this week, the department will open another temporary facility to process immigrants. DHS said shelters in Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, have also seen a decrease in migrants.
Biden has said he wanted to wait until he knew an outcome in the Title 42 legal mechanism before traveling to the border and Republicans told him to travel to play a political game.
He said, ‘They are not serious about it at all.
El Paso has been at the center of the immigration debate since the time of the Trump administration, which piloted the controversial family separation policy in the region.
While Biden has denounced Trump-era immigration policies, his own administration has struggled to strike a balance between enforcement and delivering on its humanitarian promises.
In El Paso, Biden will face the history of his predecessor and the challenges that the administration will face as it tries to stem the flow of mass migration across the hemisphere.
He will also visit a state whose governor has been fiercely critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who had already criticized the president’s upcoming trip on Twitter, bused thousands of migrants to Democratic-led cities and deployed the National Guard along the Texas-Mexico border, including El Paso.
In recent months, the El Paso region has overtaken the Rio Grande Valley region in migrant arrests. The RGV has historically been one of the busiest areas for border crossings. The El Paso Sector patrols 268 miles of the international border.
Last November, border officials encountered more than 53,000 migrants in the El Paso sector, according to the latest available data from US Customs and Border Protection.
Last year, El Paso – whose mayor, Lesser, is a Democrat – followed in the footsteps of Republican governors in New York City by sending migrant buses to try to get people to their destinations and decongest the city Could That effort has since stopped.
Escobar, who represents El Paso, said in a tweet he was “excited” to welcome Biden to the city. While he didn’t push too hard on Biden going to the border, he made clear he welcomed it in recent weeks and urged the federal government to provide aid to the city.
John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, said the president is looking forward to getting a firsthand look at the situation at the border ahead of the North American leaders’ summit in Mexico City.
“The President himself is very eager to see what the border security situation looks like, particularly in El Paso. He’s also very interested in talking to the Customs and Border Patrol agents on the ground who are actually involved in this mission,” Kirby told reporters Friday.
Ahead of Biden’s border visit, the administration also announced plans to expand the policy and include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans, while it remains in place. Title 42 so far applies broadly to immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Venezuela.
The announcements Biden made on Thursday reflect the administration’s effort to prepare for the end of Title 42, as well as programs to manage a surge of immigrants coinciding with the rule’s anticipated end.
The administration will now turn 30,000 migrants per month from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela toward those nationalities under the Humanitarian Parole Program. Those who do not come to the US under that program can be deported from Mexico under Title 42.
The announcement drew criticism from immigrant advocates and Democrats, who argued that the policies would put migrants seeking asylum in harm’s way.
“The expansion of Title 42 to include Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans is a broken promise,” Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute, said in a statement. Hope Border Institute is assisting immigrants arriving in El Paso.
“Border communities will continue to work hard to pick up the broken pieces of our country’s immigration system and show that our future lies not with removal and deportation, but with humanity and hope,” he said.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus grilled top Biden officials, including Mayorkas, on the newly announced border policies in a call Thursday, according to two sources in attendance.
Sources said members were feeling blindsided by the new policies and frustrated by the lack of engagement ahead of their rollout.
“It was really heated,” said a source, adding that members were “furious” that the administration did not consult with them ahead of time. The calls included officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the White House.
One of the sources of tension during the call was a new asylum regulation that could prevent migrants seeking asylum in the United States from doing so if they passed through another country on their way to the US–Mexico border. The restrictions are reminiscent of limits implemented during the Trump administration, though officials have rejected the comparison.
This story has been updated with additional information.