Biden visits U.S. Mexico border as immigration issue heats up - Reuters Canada

EL PASO, Texas, Jan 8 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico borderline connected Sunday for the archetypal clip since taking office, tackling 1 of the astir politically charged issues successful the state arsenic helium prepares for a re-election bid.

Accompanied by Border Patrol agents, Biden toured a conception of the partition that divides the 2 countries, a signature precedence of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, successful an effort to show that helium was taking the contented seriously.

Biden connected Thursday said his medication would tighten migration enforcement by blocking Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants astatine the border, expanding the nationalities of those who tin beryllium expelled backmost to Mexico.

But that has not impressed Republicans similar Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who accused him of failing to enforce migration laws.

"You person violated your law work to support the States against penetration done faithful execution of national laws," Abbott, a imaginable 2024 statesmanlike candidate, wrote successful a missive helium handed to Biden upon his accomplishment successful the state.

Biden told reporters helium had not yet work the letter.

Joined by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the president besides visited the Bridge of the Americas, which connects the United States and Mexico, and viewed instrumentality that borderline officials usage to observe amerciable drugs.

Biden hopes to fortify relations with Border Patrol agents, immoderate of whom person bristled astatine the rollback of hardline enforcement policies by the White House.

The semipermanent extremity of Congress reforming America's creaky migration strategy is improbable to win fixed Republicans' recently assumed power of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Right-wing lawmakers person repeatedly torpedoed U.S. migration betterment proposals implicit the past 2 decades.

Biden sent Congress an migration betterment program connected his archetypal time successful bureau 2 years ago, but it floundered owed to absorption from Republicans, who besides blocked his petition for $3.5 cardinal to beef up borderline enforcement.

Republicans are pushing their ain plans for the borderline aft securing a constrictive bulk successful the House of Representatives successful the 2022 midterm elections.

Republican U.S. Representative Jim Jordan told Fox News that Biden should follow the zero-tolerance policies pursued by Trump, which included separating children from their migrant parents.

"They've allowed present a concern wherever frankly, we nary longer person a border," Jordan said.

Mayorkas connected Sunday said planetary crises and legislative gridlock constricted Biden's quality to trim the fig of migrants making their mode to the United States.

"We're conscionable dealing with a breached system," Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One connected the mode to Texas.

El Paso's Democratic mayor declared a authorities of emergency past month, citing hundreds of migrants' sleeping connected the streets successful acold temperatures and thousands being apprehended each day.

U.S. borderline officials apprehended a grounds 2.2 cardinal migrants astatine the borderline with Mexico successful the 2022 fiscal twelvemonth that ended successful September, though that fig includes individuals who tried to transverse aggregate times.

'MARKEDLY DIFFERENT'

At the aforesaid clip arsenic helium expanded his authorization to expel migrants, Biden connected Thursday opened legal, constricted pathways into the state for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians - allowing up to 30,000 radical from those 3 countries positive Venezuela to participate the state by aerial each month.

While winning praise from immoderate U.S. manufacture groups hopeless to lick pressing labour shortages, Biden's moves person drawn disapproval from quality rights activists and immoderate Democrats who accidental the caller restrictions are a retreat from the president's 2020 campaign promise to reconstruct humanities rights to asylum-seekers.

Mayorkas rejected the thought that Biden was reviving Trump-era clampdowns.

"It is not a prohibition astatine all," helium said. "It is markedly antithetic than what the Trump medication proposed."

On the crushed successful El Paso, migrants greeted the caller argumentation with trepidation.

David Guillen, 43, asked Biden to forgive him and chap Venezuelan migrants who entered the state illegally, galore of whom are present sleeping extracurricular a religion successful El Paso, fearful of being arrested and deported if they effort to question to different city.

"We made a mistake ... but not a atrocious mistake. It's conscionable that we privation a amended life," helium said.

After the El Paso visit, Biden is scheduled to question southbound of the borderline to conscionable with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau successful talks that volition besides interaction connected immigration.

Americans springiness Biden failing grades connected migration policy, polls show.

An mean of polls gathered by Real Clear Politics shows 37% of the nationalist disapprove of Biden's handling of immigration, a fig little than his wide support rating.

"Fundamentally we person to hole the system," Mayorkas told reporters.

Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Daina Beth Solomon successful El Paso, and Andrea Shalal successful Washington; penning by Rafael Satter and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Heather Timmons, Kieran Murray, Bill Berkrot, Paul Simao, Lisa Shumaker and Diane Craft

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