Share with:

Border crisis raging, Biden’s first visit Sunday in El Paso blasted as long overdue

Story by Todd J. Gillman, Alfredo Corchado, The Dallas Morning News • Thursday

73Comments

WASHINGTON – Two years after taking office, President Joe Biden will make his first U.S.-Mexico border visit on Sunday with a stop in El Paso, where a massive influx of migrants has overwhelmed local shelters.

Migrants cross the Rio Grande into El Paso from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Dec. 21, 2022.© Lola Gomez/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

Republicans have long clamored for such a visit, pressing for Biden to see firsthand a crisis they blame on weak enforcement and misguided immigration policies.

Finance Your Staffing Company! – Rates From 0.30-0.69%

Ad merituscapital.com

“I will visit the border myself this Sunday in El Paso to assess border enforcement operations, meet with the local officials and community leaders and the folks at the border,” Biden said at the White House on Thursday.

Announcing a raft of policies meant to ease pressure by cracking down on unlawful crossing while allowing 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti to enter the country each month, he added, “I know that migration is putting a real strain on the border and border communities.”

At the border, Biden will press Congress for record-level Homeland Security funding. He blamed GOP extremists for blocking updated immigration policies that would have averted the current crisis and lauded the religious and civic groups that have stepped up to help refugees, calling them a “powerful rebuke to the hostility and even the hate” stirred up by fearmongers who cry “invasion” and warn that English is an endangered language in the United States.