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President Joe Biden will visit the US-Mexico border on Sunday for the first time since taking office and will address some of his biggest political challenges amid criticism from his critics.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, seeks to demonstrate that migration is a priority for his administration and thus, also, strengthen relations with the border patrol that could give him another opportunity to pressure Congress to approve new laws that help find a solution. in the migration crisis.
Last Thursday, Biden announced new plans to stop the entry of Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan immigrants at the US-Mexico border, expanding the range of migrant nationalities that can be expelled to Mexico.
But Republican control of the House of Representatives essentially blocks the prospects for any legislative fix, leaving Biden with few options.
“The trip is an acknowledgment that this is a serious issue, with real difficulties, but that it will only be resolved with the help of Republicans,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic consultant.
Biden will meet at the border with local officials and community leaders and assess border control operations in El Paso, Texas, where the Democratic mayor declared a state of emergency as hundreds of migrants sleep on the streets in freezing temperatures and other thousands are arrested every day.
After the visit to El Paso, Biden will travel to Mexico to meet with the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, in the framework of the North American Leaders’ Summit, where they will also discuss irregular migration.
US border authorities apprehended a record 2.2 million migrants at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022, which ended in September, though that number includes people who attempted to cross multiple times.
The situation led Biden to take steps to curb irregular migration, first issuing restrictions for Venezuelans, and now expanding them to Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians. Human rights activists and some Democrats say the new restrictions are a throwback to Biden’s 2020 campaign promise, when he vowed to restore historic rights to asylum seekers.
“Listen to the people on this side”: Migrants in Mexico
Julio Márquez is a Venezuelan immigrant who sells lollipops near the border in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, holding a cardboard sign that reads: “Help us with whatever comes from your heart.”
It is the same message that he sends to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, prior to his visit to the Texan city of El Paso, just across the border.
“We hope that he will help us, that he will let us pass, since we are suffering a lot here in Mexico,” said Márquez, 32. “You have to listen to the people on this side,” he added.
Márquez said he and his partner, 19-year-old Yalimar Chirinos, do not qualify for the new legal entry program because they lack a US sponsor.
“The laws are constantly changing, every week,” Chirinos says. The couple has been in Mexico for five months after crossing several countries and the dangerous jungle of the Darién, between Colombia and Panama. At night they sleep on the street, without a tent or blankets, hugging each other for warmth, fearful of criminals known to rob and kidnap immigrants.
Protest for new immigration measures
On Saturday, hundreds marched through the streets of El Paso to protest the new immigration measures. When the demonstration reached a group of migrants outside a church, they sang “Los buenos somos más” or “The good guys outnumber the bad guys.”
About 300 migrants have taken refuge on the sidewalks of Sacred Heart Church, with some fearing to seek more formal shelters amid the new restrictions.
This is the scene Biden will receive on his first visit to the southern border on Sunday. Juan Tovar, a Venezuelan migrant who crossed into the US illegally while evading border patrol, said that “we are not all bad people and most of us came here to find a future for our children.”
The Biden administration said it would admit up to 30,000 migrants by air from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela each month under a new temporary “humanitarian parole” program, on the condition of having a US sponsor.
One measure that makes obtaining a visa can be a lengthy and expensive process that is not always within the reach of the most vulnerable people.
with Reuters
