US President Joe Biden tours US-Mexico border for first time after assuming office 2 years back

• President Joe Biden will visit the US-Mexico border on Sunday.
• It will be his first such visit since taking office almost two years ago.
• The mayor of El Paso issued a state of emergency after record-breaking numbers of migrants came to the US.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden will visit the border with Mexico for the first time since assuming office almost two years ago. He will discuss one of the nation’s most contentious political topics as he gears up for reelection.

In addition to broadening the nationalities of people who can be sent back to Mexico, Biden on Thursday announced additional measures to bar migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua at the US-Mexico border. His visit to El Paso, Texas, is not anticipated to result in any new policy developments.

Instead, it aims to show how seriously the Democratic president is handling the situation, put an end to persistent rumors about his border visitation plans, and repair relations with Border Patrol, some of whose agents have taken offense at the White House’s reversal of strict enforcement practices.

Given that Republicans have recently taken control of the US House of Representatives, the longer-term objective of getting Congress to approve laws to improve America’s ailing immigration system seems unlikely to be successful.

Over the past 20 years, right-wing lawmakers have repeatedly scuttled plans for US immigration reform.

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On his first day in office, Biden delivered a plan for immigration reform to Congress. Republicans in Congress opposed it and stopped his request for $3.5 billion to strengthen border enforcement, which caused it to fail.

Jim Jordan, a Republican serving as a US Representative, said on Fox News on Sunday that the Republicans may support the Democrats, but only if Biden followed the enforcement strategies of the late President Donald Trump. As part of a “zero-tolerance” strategy to discourage illegal immigration, the tactics included severing children from their immigrant parents.

“They’ve allowed now a situation where frankly, we no longer have a border,” Jordan said.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, will accompany Biden as they meet with congressional representatives, municipal officials, and community groups at the border.

Mayorkas claimed on Sunday that the president has no control over two of the major factors contributing to an increase in the number of migrants arriving in the United States: global issues and legislative inaction.

On the flight to Texas on Air Force One, Mayorkas told reporters, “We’re just dealing with a broken system.”

The Democratic mayor of El Paso issued a state of emergency last month, citing hundreds of migrants camping on the streets in the cold and thousands being detained daily, and the White House announced that Biden will evaluate border enforcement operations there.

Although the figure includes people who attempted to cross more than once, US border officials detained a record 2.2 million migrants at the border with Mexico in the 2022 fiscal year that ended in September.

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