First modification:
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.
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.
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.
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.