Biden gets firsthand look at US-Mexico border crisis

By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, US (AA) - President Joe Biden made his first visit since taking office to the US-Mexico border on Sunday, spending four hours in El Paso in the US state of Texas.

“They need a lot of resources. We're going to get it for them,” Biden told reporters when asked to assess the migrant crisis there.

El Paso is currently the biggest corridor for illegal crossings in the US, highlighting the immigration problems plaguing border cities.

Biden met with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been a vocal critic of the current administration's immigration policies.

“The president who caused the chaos at the border needed to be here. It just so happens he’s two years and about $20 billion too late,” Abbott said at a news conference.

“He needs to step up and take swift action, including reimbursing the state of Texas for the money we’ve spent but providing more resources for the federal government to do its job. Also, this is nothing but for show, unless he begins to enforce the immigration laws that already exist.”

The numbers of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border have risen dramatically during Biden’s first two years in office, with more than 2.38 million migrant stops this past year, the first time that number has topped two million.

Biden's border visit has been criticized by Republicans as a political stunt. Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel held a separate news conference in the border town of McAllen to criticize the president’s “disastrous border security plan and its effects on Texas’ border communities.”

“We’re in McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, where so much of this is happening, and President Biden has still never been here,” said McDaniel. “So we wanted to make sure that we don’t forget this part of the state and allow him to do a photo op in El Paso and pretend that the problem is gone.”

Biden announced a new immigration policy on Jan. 5 that would allow 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the US to work legally for up to two years with a sponsor.

However, under Title 42, implemented by former President Donald Trump, migrants from those countries who cross illegally into the US from Mexico would be deported immediately and face a five-year ban from being able to enter the country legally.