Biden tours US-Mexico border in the face of Republican criticism

Washington – President Joe Biden walked through a muddy patch US-Mexico border And on Sunday, during his first visit to the area after a two-year tenure, he toured the busy port of entry. Complex politics surrounding immigration as Republicans condemn him record number of immigrants cross the country.

At the first stop, the president, as a border patrol officer El Paso Showed how to search for vehicles drugs, money and other contraband. Next, he moved to a dusty street lined with abandoned buildings and walked along the metal border fence that separates the city of the United States from Ciudad Juárez.

His last stop was the El Paso County Immigration Services Center, but he didn’t see any immigrants. So when he learned about the services on offer, he asked the aid workers.

Biden’s nearly four-hour visit to El Paso was very well managed. He encountered no immigrants except when his motorcade ran along the border, with about a dozen people lined up on the Ciudad Juárez side. It did not include time at border patrol stations where they were arrested and held before being released.

The visit appears to be aimed at showcasing smooth operations to process legal immigrants, remove smuggled contraband, and humanely treat those who enter illegally, and is expected to open borders. It has created a narrative that counters Republican claims of a corresponding crisis.

But his visit has done little to quell criticism from both sides, including immigration advocates who accuse him of establishing a cruel policy that bears no resemblance to that of his hardline predecessor, Donald Trump. It didn’t help.

In a sign of serious tensions over immigration, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott said as soon as Biden landed in the state, the “chaos” at the border was a “direct result” of the president. I handed over the letter to Biden. Failure to Enforce Federal Law. Biden later pulled the letter out of his jacket pocket while on tour and told reporters, “I haven’t read it yet.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy dismissed Biden’s visit as a “photoshoot” and said on Twitter that the Republican majority was responsible for an administration that “caused the most dangerous border crisis in American history.”

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego welcomed Biden’s visit, but said the current low number of arrivals meant the president had no idea how large the group of newcomers was.

“He didn’t understand the real difficulty,” said Samaniego, who was on the local delegation that greeted Biden. I still have much more to do and more time to spend with him.”

Elsewhere in El Paso, which Mr. Biden did not visit, hundreds of migrants congregate on Sunday outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where they sleep outdoors and receive three meals a day from faith groups and other humanitarian organizations. had received.

Among the migrants were several pregnant women, including 8-month-old Carla Sainz, 26. She was traveling with a small group that included her two-year-old son, Joshua. Sainz left her three other children with her mother in Venezuela.

“I would like to ask President Biden to help me with a permit or something so we can continue to work,” she said.

One of several in her group, 32-year-old Juan Tovar, suggested there were also political reasons for leaving his country.

“Socialism sucks,” he said. “In Venezuela they kill us, they torture us, we can’t speak ill of the government. Our life is worse than in Cuba.”

Noengris Garcia, also eight months pregnant, was traveling from the small Portuguese state of Venezuela with her husband, teenage son and small family dog.

“We don’t want to be given money or a house,” said Garcia, 39.

Asked what he learned from seeing the border firsthand and talking to the officers who work along it, Biden said, “They need a lot of resources. I plan to put it in.”

El Paso is now Largest Corridor for Illegal Crossing, mainly because Nicaraguans escaped oppression, crime and poverty in their own country. They said he was one of his immigrants from four countries and is currently subject to expedited deportation under immigration law. New Rules Enacted by Biden Administration It drew strong criticism from immigration advocates last week.

Biden’s recent policy announcement on border security and his border visit were intended to blunt the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration promised by House Republicans. Action by a divided Congress is needed, and multiple efforts to enact sweeping changes have failed in recent years.

Biden headed south from Texas to Mexico City. He and the leaders of Mexico and Canada come together The North American Summit will be held on Monday and Tuesday. Immigration is one of his agenda items.

The number of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has increased dramatically in Mr. 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 steps similar to the Trump administration and has struggled to crack down on intersections.

The policy change announced last week is Biden’s biggest move yet to contain illegal border crossings, and will displace tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the border. 30,000 immigrants from Venezuela each month have the opportunity to come to the United States legally, as long as they fly, get a sponsorship, and pass a background check.

The United States will also deny immigrants who do not first seek asylum in any country they transit en route to the United States-scheduled dates and times.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas told reporters aboard Air Force One that the administration “is seeking to encourage safe and orderly practices and to eliminate smuggling gangs”, adding that the policy is “not prohibitive at all”. ‘ is an attempt to protect immigrants from crime. Trauma caused by smuggling.

The change was welcomed by some, especially leaders in cities with high concentrations of immigrants. But Mr. Biden was accused by immigration advocacy groups of taking steps that were modeled after the former president’s actions. Administrative officials disputed that characterization.

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

The only visit the White House can point to was Biden’s trip across the border while he was campaigning for president in 2008. Vice President Kamala Harris Heads to El Paso in 2021but she was criticized for largely avoiding the action because El Paso wasn’t as central to the crossroads as it is now.

Trump, who has made immigration hardening a signature issue, has made several trips to the border.

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Associated Press writer Andres Leighton in El Paso, Texas. Anita Snow of Phoenix. Morgan Lee of Santa Fe, New Mexico. and Josh Boak of Washington contributed to this report.