On Thursday, Joe Biden revealed his plans to finally pay a visit to the southern border for the first time since he came to power, as the immigration crisis on his watch rages on.
ABC News reports that Biden will visit El Paso, Texas, a border community that has been among the hardest-hit regions in the migration crisis, “to assess border enforcement operations, meet with the local officials and community leaders and the folks at the border sending me what they need that they don’t have.”
Since taking office, Biden has adhered to his campaign promises to implement an open-border approach to immigration, significantly reducing and in some cases eliminating enforcement efforts to allow more illegal aliens to flood into the country unrestricted. Most illegals who are detained are quickly released, and the administration has even worked to transport them, by bus and by plane, to destinations of their choice. He also vowed to provide amnesty and taxpayer-funded benefits to all illegals, including free healthcare, free education, and free housing.
While his handling of the border has been praised by Democrats, who see illegal aliens as potential new voters, Republicans have highlighted the border as one of the major attack points against Biden, particularly his refusal to visit the border and see the damage for himself. The images and videos of illegals flooding into the country, and the subsequent crises impacting border communities as homelessness and crime skyrocket, has led to immigration being one of the top issues on which voters overwhelmingly disapprove of Biden’s performance.
However, Biden tried to shift blame to the Republicans, claiming in a Thursday speech that the GOP are not “serious about this at all,” and that when he speaks to border officials about what they need to do their jobs properly, he will “try to convince my Republican colleagues they should do something.”
The visit will be part of Biden’s broader trip to Mexico, where he will visit on Monday and Tuesday with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Most recently, the Biden Administration has attempted to end the Trump-era health policy Title 42, which cited the Chinese coronavirus pandemic as a reason for increasing deportation efforts and reducing legal and illegal immigration into the country, out of fear of spreading COVID-19 and other diseases. Despite Biden’s attempts to end the successful policy, the Supreme Court has temporarily halted those efforts, as it awaits arguments from a coalition of 19 Republican-led states arguing for the policy’s preservation.