America

Biden announces his “intention” to visit the border with Mexico for the first time as president

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Washington (AFP) – President Joe Biden will address the thorny immigration issue in a speech on Thursday and plans to visit the US-Mexico border, likely next week.

“I will give a speech tomorrow about border security,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

Shortly before, he stated that he “intends” to travel to the border area for the first time since he took office two years ago, possibly on the sidelines of a planned trip to Mexico next week. “That is my intention. Now we are working out the details,” Biden said during a visit to Kentucky.

It is unknown where he would go along the border, which is more than 3,057 kilometers long.

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States surrender to border patrol agents in the El Paso sector on January 2, 2023.
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States surrender to border patrol agents in the El Paso sector on January 2, 2023. © HERIKA MARTINEZ / AFP/Archives

Biden will travel to Mexico on Monday to participate in a summit of North American leaders together with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Since his inauguration, the Democratic government has tried to avoid border security, a complex problem that other presidents have not been able to solve.

The US economy is highly dependent on foreign labor, but the number of migrants, many of them from Latin America, who sometimes put their lives in danger as they try to reach the United States in search of a better life or to ask for asylum, has put a lot of strain on the system.

Members of his government have come to say that the immigration system is “broken.”

a political battle

Some of the fiercest political battles in recent years have been fought over the situation on the border with Mexico.

His Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, came to power in 2016 in large part thanks to a message calling those who cross this border “criminals” and even “rapists and murderers.” An incendiary rhetoric that permeated communities concerned about crime or job loss.

Biden, who defeated Trump in 2020, has vowed to restore America’s traditional values ​​at the border, namely providing refuge for asylum seekers and ending harsh detention policies for those who cross without proper documentation.

Migrants, mostly from Venezuela, expelled from the US and sent back to Mexico under Title 42, protest near the Paso del Norte international border bridge, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on October 14, 2022.
Migrants, mostly from Venezuela, expelled from the US and sent back to Mexico under Title 42, protest near the Paso del Norte international border bridge, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on October 14, 2022. © Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez

The Covid-19 pandemic has complicated the debate, with an ongoing legal battle over whether the sanitary restrictions used to quickly stop and expel migrants should be upheld.

The border issue is one of Biden’s main political weaknesses, a stone on his path to re-election if he runs for a second term in office, as he will according to his advisers.

Border guards are often overwhelmed by the influx of migrants or asylum seekers, many of whom are fleeing destitution. Many of them are from Central America, Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans and other countries who are exposing themselves to a long and dangerous journey.

An asylum-seeking migrant tries to cross the Rio Grande to request asylum in El Paso, Texas, while members of the National Police, Texas State Troops and members of the Texas National Guard stand guard on the banks of the Rio Grande, border between the United States and Mexico, with the purpose of reinforcing border security and inhibiting the crossing of migrants to the United States, after the Supreme Court of Justice of the United States said that Title 42 must remain as it is for now, seen from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico December 20, 2022.
An asylum-seeking migrant tries to cross the Rio Grande to request asylum in El Paso, Texas, while members of the National Police, Texas State Troops and members of the Texas National Guard stand guard on the banks of the Rio Grande, border between the United States and Mexico, with the purpose of reinforcing border security and inhibiting the crossing of migrants to the United States, after the Supreme Court of Justice of the United States said that Title 42 must remain as it is for now, seen from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico December 20, 2022. © Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Some conservatives accuse Biden of abandoning the border to his fate and the White House responds that the key to solving the problem lies with Congress, where Republican and Democratic legislators are unable to agree on immigration reforms.

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