‘If I may wave the wand…’: Prez Biden to help employee in first go to to US-Mexico border

By Associated Press: President Joe Biden walked a muddy stretch of the US-Mexico border and inspected a busy port of entry Sunday on his first journey to the area after two years in workplace, a go to shadowed by the fraught politics of immigration as Republicans blame him for document numbers of migrants crossing into the nation.

At his first cease, the president noticed as border officers in El Paso demonstrated how they search automobiles for medication, cash and different contraband. Next, he travelled to a dusty road with deserted buildings and walked alongside a metallic border fence that separated the US metropolis from Ciudad Juarez.

IF I COULD WAVE THE WAND…

His final cease was the El Paso County Migrant Services Center — however there have been no migrants in sight. As he discovered in regards to the companies provided there, he requested an help employee, “If I could wave the wand, what should I do?” The reply was not audible.

Biden’s practically four-hour go to to El Paso was extremely managed. He encountered no migrants besides when his motorcade drove alongside the border and a few dozen had been seen on the Ciudad Juárez aspect. His go to didn’t embody time at a Border Patrol station, the place migrants who cross illegally are arrested and held earlier than their launch. He delivered no public remarks.

The go to appeared designed to showcase a easy operation to course of authorized migrants, weed out smuggled contraband and humanely deal with those that have entered illegally, making a counter-narrative to Republicans’ claims of a disaster state of affairs equal to an open border.

But his go to was seemingly do little to quell critics from either side, together with immigrant advocates who accuse him of building merciless insurance policies not not like these of his hard-line predecessor, Donald Trump.

In an indication of the deep tensions over immigration, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, handed Biden a letter as quickly as he touched down within the state that stated the “chaos” on the border was a “direct result” of the president’s failure to implement federal legal guidelines. Biden later took the letter out of his jacket pocket throughout his tour, telling reporters, “I haven’t read it yet.”

DIDN’T GET TO SEE REAL DIFFICULTIES

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy dismissed Biden’s go to as a “photo op,” saying on Twitter that the Republican majority would maintain the administration “accountable for creating the most dangerous border crisis in American history.”

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego welcomed Biden’s go to, however stated a present lull in arrivals prevented the president from seeing how giant the group of newcomers has been.

“He didn’t get to see the real difficulties,” stated Samaniego, who was within the native delegation that greeted Biden. “It was good that he was here. It’s a first step. But we still need to do more and have more time with him.”

Elsewhere in El Paso the place Biden didn’t go to, tons of of migrants had been gathered Sunday outdoors the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the place they’ve been sleeping outside and receiving three meals a day from religion teams and different humanitarian organizations.

SOCIALISM IS THE WORST

The migrants included a number of pregnant ladies, together with Karla Sainz, 26, eight months alongside. She was touring in a small group that included her 2-year-old son, Joshua. Sainz left her three different kids again dwelling in Venezuela together with her mom.

“I would ask President Biden to help me with a permission or something so we can work and continue,” she stated.

Juan Tovar, 32, certainly one of a number of folks in her group, advised he additionally had political causes for leaving his dwelling nation.

“Socialism is the worst,” he stated. “In Venezuela, they kill us, they torture us, we can’t talk bad about the government. We are worse off than in Cuba.”

Noengris Garcia, additionally eight months pregnant, was touring together with her husband, teen son and the small household canine from the tiny state of Portuguesa, Venezuela, the place she operated a meals stall.

“We don’t want to be given money or a house,” stated Garcia, 39. “We just want to work.”

Asked what he’s discovered by seeing the border firsthand and talking with the officers who work alongside it, Biden stated: “They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them.”

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El Paso is at present the largest hall for unlawful crossings, largely on account of Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime and poverty of their nation. They are amongst migrants from 4 international locations who are actually topic to fast expulsion underneath new guidelines enacted by the Biden administration previously week that drew sturdy criticism from immigration advocates.

Biden’s current coverage bulletins on border safety and his go to to the border had been aimed partly at blunting the impression of upcoming investigations into immigration promised by House Republicans. But any enduring resolution would require motion by the sharply divided Congress, the place a number of efforts to enact sweeping adjustments have failed lately.

From Texas, Biden traveled south to Mexico City, the place he and the leaders of Mexico and Canada will collect on Monday and Tuesday for a North American leaders summit. Immigration is among the many gadgets on the agenda. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met Biden on the airport Sunday evening and joined him within the presidential limousine for the trip to Biden’s lodge.

The numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has risen dramatically throughout Biden’s first two years in workplace. There had been greater than 2.38 million stops through the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, the primary time the quantity topped 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take measures that might resemble these of Trump’s administration.

INCENTIVISE A SAFE AND ORDERLY WAY

The coverage adjustments introduced this previous week are Biden’s largest transfer but to include unlawful border crossings and can flip away tens of 1000’s of migrants arriving on the border. At the identical time, 30,000 migrants per thirty days from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela will get the possibility to return to the US legally so long as they journey by airplane, get a sponsor and move background checks.

The US can even flip away migrants who don’t search asylum first in a rustic they traveled by means of en path to the US Migrants are being requested to finish a type on a telephone app in order that they will go to a port of entry at a pre-scheduled date and time.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas advised reporters aboard Air Force One that the administration is attempting to “incentivise a safe and orderly way and cut out the smuggling organizations,” saying the insurance policies are “not a ban at all” however an try to guard migrants from the trauma that smuggling can create.

The adjustments had been welcomed by some, significantly leaders in cities the place migrants have been massing. But Biden was excoriated by immigrant advocate teams, which accused him of taking measures modeled after these of the previous president. Administration officers disputed that characterization.

For all of his worldwide journey over his 50 years in public service, Biden has not spent a lot time on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The solely go to that the White House may level to was Biden’s drive by the border whereas he was campaigning for president in 2008. He despatched Vice President Kamala Harris to El Paso in 2021, however she was criticized for largely bypassing the motion, as a result of El Paso wasn’t the middle of crossings that it’s now.

Trump, who made hardening immigration a signature subject, traveled to the border a number of instances.

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Published On:

Jan 9, 2023