Joe Biden, the President, made his first trip to the border of Texas since assuming office, but despite visiting a shelter for migrants, he didn’t get to meet any of the people staying there.
President Biden spent several hours in El Paso, witnessing the situation his border policies exacerbated. However, it appears that his visit focused mostly on his administration’s sudden newly founded concern over enforcement concerns. Biden spoke with border enforcement officers, and CNN was among many who called him out on his virtue-signaling antics.
When asked to explain why Biden was sent to this particular center without seeing or interacting with any migrants there, a senior administration source told CNN there just weren’t any migrants at the site when he arrived. He reiterated that “they haven’t had any today.”
While roughly a thousand migrants were in federal prison across El Paso’s detention facilities, hundreds more migrants, including women and children, survived on the streets. Or, to put it another way, Biden would have been humiliated by meeting migrants he claims to care about.
Upon entering Texas, Biden’s motorcade followed a route that runs beside the Rio Grande and the international boundary. Then he emerged for a picture op beside the massive border wall while chatting with Border Enforcers in green uniforms. Walking along the gravel road close to the fence, Biden fielded some easy questions from the press.
His next stop after the picture op was the empty migrant processing center. The ‘urgent problem’ of mass migration throughout the Western Hemisphere has prompted the Biden administration to do what appears to be a complete about-face on border policy.
More than 2.4 million arrests have been made along the US-Mexico border since 2021, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection. This also applies to those who have made many attempts to cross, and many others have also been denied entry following Title 42.
El Paso and other border cities are struggling to cope with the influx of thousands of migrants. The city has always considered itself a haven for migrants, but in recent months, a rapid influx of migrants has strained infrastructure and prompted calls for federal aid.
On Sunday, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas denied reports that he would quit due to criticism of his handling of the border issue. To a question about whether he intended to resign in the face of Republican criticism, Mayorkas answered, “I do not” during a Sunday interview with ABC News. He stated that he had a lot to accomplish and would get it done.
New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has reportedly threatened to impeach Mayorkas and stated the secretary would face legislative inquiry over his handling of the border; this is according to the National Review.
During a November trip to El Paso, McCarthy warned that if Secretary Mayorkas does not quit, House Republicans will review every order, every action, and every failure to see if initiate impeachment proceedings should begin.