President Joe Biden was confronted at the airport in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who demanded in a hand-delivered letter that Biden act immediately to stop unauthorized immigration, including by building more walls on the border.
Abbott told reporters that in his letter to Biden, he described “the chaos that his refusal to enforce the border laws” has caused in Texas and suggested five possible solutions, including increasing deportations and constructing more walls.
“He needs to step up and take swift action,” the governor said. The president, he said, responded that “he wanted to work with us on this.”
Reporters who traveled with Biden and who spoke with Abbott after the two men met were unable to hear anything they said to each other as the president stepped off Air Force One. Biden didn’t speak to the press before leaving the airport.
Abbott, a Republican, has become one of the Democratic president’s fiercest critics on immigration as border crossings have spiked. Over the last year, he has repeatedly bused migrants from Texas to Democratic-run cities to protest what he calls federal inaction on border security. The White House has lambasted the move as a stunt that exploits vulnerable people.
During a few hours on the ground in El Paso on Sunday, Biden plans to see firsthand conditions at a port of entry and a facility housing migrants encountered by U.S. authorities. The president faces calls from Democrats as well as Republicans to more quickly process cases, resettle lawful claimants and deport people deemed ineligible.
Since Biden entered the White House, the U.S. has seen a large increase in migration from Latin America. The president attributes the surge to a range of factors, including people fleeing dictatorial and socialist regimes to seek a better life in the U.S. But his critics say the crisis is fueled by Biden’s rejection of hard-line measures to stop crossings.
Congress has balked at immigration reform or major new funding, leaving Biden few options. The U.S. continues to employ pandemic-era border controls known as Title 42 to quickly expel migrants. The president acknowledged there is no easy fix on Thursday as he announced new measures to address the border situation.
“Our problems at the border didn’t arise overnight and they’re not going to be solved overnight. It’s a difficult problem,” Biden said. But he also lashed out at Republicans for what he called “inflammatory” talk about migration and urged them to work across the aisle to approve immigration legislation and additional border-security funds.
“Immigration reform used to be a bipartisan issue. We can make it that way again. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s economically a smart thing to do,” Biden said. “It’s so easy to demagogue this issue.”
Congress is preparing to investigate the situation at the border, following the election of Republican Kevin McCarthy as House speaker early Saturday. Some Republicans have threatened to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over what they say is a lack of border control.
Mayorkas dismissed the threat of impeachment in remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, saying his department has “work that we need to get done.”
Many Republicans have accused Biden of overlooking the crisis, particularly those representing border states.
“During this entire time, Joe Biden has not called me — he did not call me, nor his staff called and let us know either about his visit or to invite us, until last night,” Abbott said earlier on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “We got a random email to one of my staff members asking if I would be there to meet him on the tarmac.”
A White House official confirmed that Abbott was invited on Saturday to meet Biden.
Biden is visiting the Texas city and its border installations on his way to Mexico City, where he will meet Monday and Tuesday with the leaders of Canada and Mexico at the North American Leaders’ Summit.
Biden teed up the summit by announcing on Thursday a deal with Mexico under which the U.S. will expand a humanitarian program to allow as many as 30,000 additional migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela.
The changes expand on an October initiative that allowed qualifying Venezuelans to enter the U.S. by air if they applied abroad, could point to someone in the U.S. who would provide financial support, and passed national security, public safety and health screenings.
But as part of the arrangement, the administration will stop offering asylum to migrants from those four countries who try to cross into the U.S. without authorization. In an agreement with Mexico’s government to accompany the new parole program, more migrants from the four countries will be refused entry and returned to Mexico.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Biden’s announcement “further ties his administration to the poisonous anti-immigrant policies of the Trump era instead of restoring fair access to asylum protections.”
Mayorkas said it isn’t fair to compare the policy to the Trump administration’s approach, and that there is no limit on asylum applications.
“It is not a ban at all, and it is markedly different than what the Trump administration proposed,” Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “What we are trying to do is draw people in a safe and orderly way, which is not the case now.”
He added: “I’ve seen firsthand what trauma is inflicted on migrants who actually use the smuggling organizations — trauma, or tragedy.”
Biden and former President Donald Trump have used Title 42 restrictions to expel migrants more than 2 million times since early 2020.
Biden has grappled with how to deal with the border throughout his administration, including by trying to quell the unrest that fuels migration. In 2021, he appointed Vice President Kamala Harris as a point person to address the economic and social conditions driving migration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Congress has balked at any meaningful new funding or reform, though, leaving Biden — who sent a suggested immigration bill to Congress on the day he was sworn in — with scant room to overhaul an already overwhelmed system except through executive measures.
“It’s a complicated issue. I don’t want to pretend there’s anything easy about it,” Biden said Thursday.
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(With assistance from Jenny Leonard and Akayla Gardner.)
