Biden travels to see firsthand the situation on the border with Mexico amid a chorus of Republican criticism

By Colleen Long -

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden heads to the US-Mexico border on Sunday, his first trip there as president after two years of harassment from Republicans who have criticized him for being soft on border security while the number of migrants crossing soars.

Biden is scheduled to spend a few hours in El Paso, Texas, where more illegal crossings are currently taking place, due in large part to Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime and poverty at home.

They are among immigrants from four countries who are now subject to expedited removal under new rules enacted by the Biden Administration last week that drew strong criticism from immigration advocates.

The president is expected to meet with border officials to discuss migration, as well as the rise in trafficking in fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which are causing skyrocketing overdoses in the US.

President Joe Biden is escorted by Col. Matthew Jones, 89th Airlift Wing commander, right, on his way to board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Sunday, January 8, 2023. to travel to El Paso, Texas, and then to Mexico City. Andrew Harnik / AP

Biden will visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center and meet with non-profit organizations and religious groups that support immigrants coming to the US It is unclear if Biden will speak with any migrants.

“The president is looking forward to seeing for himself what the border security situation is like,” said John Kirby, White House spokesman for homeland security.

"This is something he wanted to see for himself."

Biden's announcement on border security and his visit to the border are intended in part to drown out political noise and blunt the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration management promised by House Republicans.

But any lasting solution will require action by a deeply divided Congress, where multiple efforts to enact sweeping changes have failed in recent years.

[The great political battles facing the new divided Congress that takes office in 2023]

Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas offered mild praise for Biden's decision to visit the border, and even that was notable in the current political climate.

“You should take the time to learn from some of the experts I trust most, including local officials and law enforcement, landowners, non-profit organizations, Customs and Border Protection officials and agents. America, and people who make a living in border communities on the front lines of their crisis,” Cornyn said.

From El Paso, Biden will continue south to Mexico City, where he and the leaders of Mexico and Canada will meet Monday and Tuesday for a summit of North American leaders.

Immigration is one of the items on the agenda.

Ciudad Juárez shields itself to contain the flow of migrants to the US

Jan 8, 202302:03

The challenge facing the United States at its southern border “is something that is not unique to the United States.

It's affecting the hemisphere.

And a regional challenge requires a regional solution," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News'

before joining Biden on the trip.

In El Paso, where migrants congregate at bus stops and parks before continuing on their journey, Border Patrol agents have tightened security ahead of Biden's visit.

"I think they're trying to send a message that they're going to check people's legal status more constantly, and if they haven't been prosecuted, they're going to pick it up," said Rubén García, of the aid group Annunciation House in El He passed.

[This is what happened every time Congress has tried to pass immigration reform]

Migrants and asylum seekers fleeing violence and persecution have increasingly realized that protections in the United States are primarily available to those who have money or are savvy about finding someone to vouch for them financially.

Jose Natera, a Venezuelan migrant in El Paso hoping to seek asylum in Canada, said he has no prospect of finding an American sponsor and is now reluctant to seek asylum in the United States because he fears he will be sent to Mexico.

Mexico "is a terrible country where there is crime, corruption, cartels and even the police persecute you," he said.

“They say that people who think about entering illegally will not have a chance, but at the same time I have no sponsor.

… I came to this country to work.

I didn't come here to play."

Haitian migrants who want to apply for asylum in the United States wait to register their names on a list made by a religious organization in Reynosa, Mexico, on December 21, 2022, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Fernando Llano / AP

The number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border has increased dramatically during Biden's first two years in office.

There were more than 2.38 million arrests during the year ending September 30, the first time the number had exceeded 2 million.

The Administration has struggled to clamp down on the crossings, reluctant to take hardline measures that would resemble those of the Trump administration.

The policy changes announced last week are Biden's biggest move yet to curb illegal border crossings and will turn away tens of thousands of immigrants arriving at the border.

At the same time, 30,000 immigrants a month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela will have the opportunity to come to the US legally as long as they travel by plane, obtain a sponsor and pass background checks.

The US will also turn away immigrants who do not first seek asylum in a country they traveled through on their way to the US.

[Biden expands Title 42 at the border to expel more migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua]

Some welcomed the changes, particularly leaders in cities where immigrants have been piling up.

But Biden was criticized by immigrant advocacy groups, who accused him of taking actions modeled on those of the former president.

“I don't agree with comparing ourselves to Donald Trump,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, pointing to some of his most maligned policies, including separating immigrant children from their parents.

“This is not that president,” he said.

Despite all his international travel during his 50 years in public service, Biden hasn't spent much time on the US-Mexico border.

The only visit the White House could point to was Biden's trip across the border when he campaigned for president in 2008. He sent Vice President Kamala Harris to El Paso in 2021, but was criticized for overlooking the action, because El Paso it was not the crossroads center that it is now.

Many wonder if Biden will touch the human drama that is being experienced in El Paso and other cities

Jan 8, 202302:13

President Barack Obama made a trip to El Paso in 2011, where he toured border operations and the Paso Del Norte International Bridge, but later came under fire for not returning when tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors crossed into the United States from Mexico.

Trump, who has made toughening up immigration his signature issue, has traveled to the border several times.

During one visit, he broke into a small border station to inspect cash and drugs seized by agents.

During a trip to McAllen, Texas, then the center of a growing crisis, he made one of his most repeated claims, that Mexico would pay to build a border wall.

American taxpayers ended up footing the bill, and Mexican leaders flatly rejected the idea.

“President @realDonaldTrump: NO,” Enrique Peña Nieto, then President of Mexico, tweeted in May 2018. “Mexico will NEVER pay for a wall.

Not now, not never.

Sincerely, Mexico (all of us)”.