US President Joe Biden has arrived in Mexico for talks. His Mexican colleague Andrés Manuel López Obrador received him on Sunday (local time) at Felipe Ángeles Airport north of Mexico City. A bilateral meeting between the two heads of state was planned for Monday. The topic of migration is likely to be the focus of the talks.
On Tuesday, López Obrador, Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet at the North America Summit. Before arriving in Mexico City, Biden had visited the US southern border near El Paso on Sunday. Recently, the number of illegal migrants had risen dramatically. Between October 2021 and October 2022, well over two million people attempted to enter the United States – a record.
Biden met border officials on his first visit to the US southern border and walked along the border wall with Mexico. The Democrat was previously greeted coolly by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the border city’s airport. The Republican handed Biden a letter in which he made serious allegations against the government. The visit comes two years too late, Biden’s “failure” is responsible for the “chaos” at the border.
Texas governor calls for continued construction of border wall
El Paso had recently become a focus of migration to the United States – the situation had deteriorated dramatically in December. Abbott made the letter he had given Biden public immediately afterwards.
“Their open-border policy has emboldened the cartels that grow rich from trafficking in deadly fentanyl and even humans,” it said. The US experienced “the worst illegal immigration” in the country’s history. The Texans would pay a particularly high price for this. In El Paso, the migrant camps were specially cleared for Biden’s visit, Abbott said.
The Republican demanded that the construction of the border wall in Texas must be resumed immediately. As one of his first acts in office, Biden shut down the heartfelt concern of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. Strictly speaking, the wall with its high, metal pillars is more of a fence than a wall.
Not enough accommodations in El Paso
Biden visited a US-Mexico border crossing in El Paso. He also had border officials show him how to search these vehicles. He got an idea of a facility where aid organizations take care of arriving migrants. According to the accompanying press, the employees there made it clear that they needed more financial support.
Accordingly, Biden did not meet migrants during his trip to exchange ideas with them. With the high number of migrants, both the local authorities and the local aid organizations are overwhelmed. In El Paso there is not enough housing for the people.
At the US-Mexico border, the US Border Protection Agency registered more than two million attempts by people to enter the US between October 2021 and October 2022. According to the statistics, the number of migrants who do not come from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is growing. More and more people are coming from Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.