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10-01-2023
MEXICO CITY: Joe Biden has walked along the US-Mexico border in Texas to see up close one of his presidency’s biggest issues.
He visited a migrant centre in El Paso and joined Border Patrol agents in touring a section of the border wall.
The number of migrant crossings has spiraled in recent months, making the Democratic president vulnerable to the accusation he is soft on security.
Last week he announced tougher measures to expand the nationalities of those who can be sent back to Mexico but that left the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, unimpressed, he said the president was failing to enforce immigration laws.
“You have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws,” he wrote in a letter which he handed to the president upon his arrival.
The governor’s party said it intends to use its newly acquired control of the House of Representatives to investigate the Biden administration’s handling of immigration.
Biden’s visit, his first since becoming president two years ago, was also expected to include meetings with border officials to discuss migration and the increased trafficking of fentanyl and other opioids.
El Paso, on the south-west edge of Texas, is one of the most common crossing points, often used by Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime and poverty in their country.
A controversial Trump-era policy that enabled the rapid expulsion of illegal border crossers was due to expire in December but kept in place by a Supreme Court ruling after an outcry from Republicans.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden has announced a new plan to accept up to 30,000 migrants each month, while also expanding a Trump-era policy to make it easier to send many back to Mexico. How will this impact the crisis at the border?
Biden believes the new policy which will apply to asylum seekers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela will “substantially reduce” the number of people who attempt to cross the US-Mexico border illegally.
“This new process is orderly, it’s safe and it’s humane,” Biden said in a speech at the White House while experts and immigration advocates believe it may be effective, many expressed concerns that an increased number of migrants may be sent to unsafe or inhumane conditions in Mexico.
“The administration is shifting its overall policy to a carrot and stick approach,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, of the American Immigration Council. “And the emphasis is on the stick”. Citizens from the four countries will be offered an expanded legal pathway to apply to enter the US, where they will be allowed to live and work for up to two years. To be eligible, migrants must have financial sponsors already in the US, and pass security vetting.
Applications can be done through an application, CBP One, which allows would-be asylum seekers to schedule an arrival at a port of entry into the US. Those who are denied or attempt to cross illegally will be ineligible for the program in the future.
“Stay where you are and apply legally. If your application is approved…you have access,” Mr Biden said on Thursday “but if your application is denied or you attempt to cross into the United States unlawfully, you will not be allowed to enter.”
US officials say that migrants who do attempt to cross the border illegally will rapidly be sent back to Mexico under Title 42, which gives the government power to automatically expel undocumented migrants seeking entry, with Mexico agreeing to 30,000 more returns each year. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
