US President Joe Biden said he would visit the US-Mexico border — his first trip there since taking office — in connection with his meeting next week in Mexico City with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
“That’s my intention, we’re working out the details now,” Biden told reporters on Wednesday during a trip to Kentucky.
Biden said upon his return to the White House that he hoped to see “what’s going on” at the border.
Photo: EPA-EFE
There have been large increases in the number of migrants at the border, even as a US public health law remains in place that allows authorities to turn away many people seeking asylum in the US.
Republicans have criticized the president for policies that they said are ineffective on border security, and they have questioned why he has not made a trip there yet.
The increased focus from Biden on the border also comes as the president prepares for a re-election bid next year. His sole declared potential rival, former US president Donald Trump, rose to the top of the Republican ranks during his term by animating the party’s base voters with his hardline stances on immigration.
However, there was some praise from Republicans on Wednesday after the news.
“I’m pleased President Biden will finally visit our southern border — which has been completely surrendered to the cartels, smugglers, and human traffickers,” US Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on Twitter.
Among the complaints on border security by Republicans is the amount of fentanyl coming into the US via Mexico. A report last year from a bipartisan federal commission found that fentanyl and similar drugs are being made mostly in labs in Mexico from chemicals shipped primarily from China.
Fentanyl and other lab-produced synthetic opioids are driving an overdose crisis that is deadlier than any the US has ever seen.
However, drug control advocates and experts have said that an anti-drug policy that relies on tighter border security is dangerous and likely futile. The drugs are too easy to move in small, hard-to-detect quantities.
Drug trafficking and immigration are expected to be among the top talking points at a summit on Monday and Tuesday, when Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are hosted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Early in his presidency, Biden put US Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of White House efforts to tackle the migration challenges by working with Central American nations to address root causes of the problem.
She visited El Paso, Texas, in June last year and was criticized for choosing a location too far from the epicenter of border crossings that are straining federal resources. The number of migrants crossing the border has only risen.
For now, the US Supreme Court has kept in place Trump-era restrictions, after Biden acted to end them and Republicans sued in response. The restrictions were invoked to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but there has always been criticism that they were used as a pretext by Trump to seal off the border.
Biden has yet to lay out any systemic changes to manage an expected increase of migrants should the health restrictions end. He is also limited in what he can do without immigration law changes. In the US Congress, a bipartisan immigration bill was buried shortly before Republicans assumed control of the US House of Representatives.
Biden made his comment about the upcoming border visit during a stop in Kentucky at a highway bridge that is to receive federal funds under a bipartisan infrastructure law.
Trump visited the US side of the border as president several times, including one trip to McAllen, Texas, where he said Mexico would be made to pay for the border wall. US taxpayers ended up covering the costs.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide