Border with Mexico: US President Joe Biden wants to limit illegal immigration

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US President Joe Biden

Photo: Sarah Silbiger/POOL/EPA

In view of the tense situation on the border with Mexico, US President Joe Biden is making a new attempt to get the situation under control.

At the White House on Thursday, Biden presented measures to curb illegal immigration to the United States.

On Sunday he also wants to travel to the southern border for the first time in his tenure.

Next week he wants to discuss the issue with Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the North America Summit in Mexico City.

Biden announced his administration will allow more migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua to enter the United States regularly, provided they meet certain requirements.

"Don't just come to the border," Biden appealed to potential migrants.

Up to 30,000 migrants per month from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti could enter the US legally if they were previously registered and accepted.

To do this, they would have to pass a rigorous background check.

In addition, applicants would need a guarantor in the USA.

If accepted, they could legally live and work in the United States for two years.

In return, 30,000 illegal immigrants per month should be deported from these countries to Mexico, Biden explained.

Such a program for migrants from Venezuela has reduced the number of people from the country crossing the border irregularly from 1,100 to 250 a day, Biden said.

Biden plans to visit the border town of El Paso, Texas on Sunday.

He wanted to get an idea of ​​the situation at the border and the work of the border guards there.

The Democrat Biden has repeatedly been sharply attacked by the Republicans because of the situation on the border.

Republican governors of various states in the southern United States had repeatedly sent coaches full of migrants to democratically governed states such as New York or the capital Washington last year to put pressure on Biden.

The President, in turn, accused the Republicans in Congress of blocking a reform package on migration policy that he presented at the beginning of his term in office.

Republicans also rejected his demand for an additional $3.5 billion to secure the border.

Biden wants to use this to better equip the border protection authorities, to send more judges to the border regions in order to shorten the processing times for asylum applications and to provide more reception facilities.

The President appealed to Republicans to work with Democrats on the issue of migration.

Republicans have a choice: "You can continue to use immigration to make political points or you can help solve the problem," Biden said.

Migration will be a key issue at the North America Summit, which Biden will attend on Jan. 10.

The US President wants to travel to Mexico City from January 9th to 10th for this purpose.

There he will meet Mexico's President and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In addition to migration, the summit will also deal with climate change, drug smuggling and the competitiveness of the three member states of the USMCA free trade agreement.

kev/dpa