Biden Visits Southern Border As Texas Gov. Abbott Blasts President For Arriving ‘Two Years Too Late’

Topline

President Joe Biden arrived in El Paso on Sunday for his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) greeted the president with a letter attacking his immigration policies and accusing him of planning a “sanitized” visit, as the Biden Administration struggles to curb a years-long surge in unauthorized migration.

Key Facts

Abbott shook hands with Biden after he deboarded Air Force One, then handed Biden a letter in which he accused him of avoiding “sites where mass illegal immigration occurs” and violating his “constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion.”

Biden later traveled to the Bridge of the Americas that connects Mexico to the United States, and met with Democratic Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar, Veronica Escobar and Vicente González as well as local leaders like El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser (D).

The president, along with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, also observed equipment used by border authorities to scan for smuggling and viewed a demonstration by a border patrol canine officer.

Hours before the visit, Mayorkas and Abbott sparred in separate TV appearances, with Mayorkas accusing Abbott’s administration of failing to cooperate with the federal government by busing migrants to sanctuary cities, including Washington, D.C., and New York, and Abbott alleging the Biden Administration planned the visit to Texas without consulting Abbott’s administration.

Biden is rolling a new plan that would expand parole options for Haitian, Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants, but rapidly expel thousands of them to Mexico if they cross the border without authorization, a policy Abbott argued “is not border enforcement, it is border crossing enticement.”

Big Number

2.2 million. That’s the number of arrests made at the border during fiscal year 2022 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the most ever recorded. Almost 10% of arrestees last fiscal year were Cuban citizens, and another 7.4% hailed from Nicaragua and 8.5% from Venezuela, a stark change from previous years, when the vast majority of migrants were citizens of Mexico or a handful of nearby countries in Central America.

Key Background

Border arrests have surged in recent years, a trend that the Biden Administration has blamed on poverty and violence in Central and South America but Republicans have blamed on Biden’s immigration policies. The administration is preparing for the end of the Trump-era Title 42 program that allows U.S. officials to rapidly expel migrants at the border due to Covid-19 concerns. The program is controversial, with supporters arguing it controls illegal border crossings while opponents say it prevents migrants from exercising their legal right to seek asylum. The Biden Administration sought to end Title 42 earlier this year, despite expanding it in recent months to some migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua. The policy was kept in place by the Supreme Court last month while the Republican-led lawsuit against its expiration plays out in court. Biden said last week he waited to visit the border until decisions were made about Title 42.

Chief Critic

“Your visit to our southern border with Mexico today is $20 billion too little and two years too late,” Abbott wrote in his letter, which also asks Biden to “aggressively prosecute illegal entry,” designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and construct a border wall, among other measures.

Contra

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) criticized Biden’s expansion of Title 42 to include Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans. The senators warned it will “do nothing to restore the rule of law at the border” and will “enrich human smuggling networks” instead, in a statement issued Thursday.

Tangent

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) announced Sunday he would introduce legislation to allow military force to aid the Mexican army in fighting cartels at the southern border, he said on Sunday Morning Futures.

Further Reading

Biden Says He’ll Visit Southern Border For First Time As President (Forbes)

Judge Ends Trump-Era Title 42 Policy Used To Expel Migrants (Forbes)

Supreme Court Keeps Title 42 In Place: What To Know About It And How It Could Affect Immigration (Forbes)