President Joe Biden will visit the US southern border on Sunday to assess federal immigration enforcement efforts to manage the record-breaking surge of migrants arriving in the United States under his watch.
Biden’s political opponents have repeatedly slammed the president for failing to visit the border amid the crisis. Former President Trump last week unveiled his own plan to secure the border, which included strikes on cartels. The United States has seen two consecutive record breaking years of illegal crossings into its territory since Biden assumed office in January 2021. Well over two million illegal crossings into the United States were recorded in fiscal year 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection data. 400,000 migrants have come to the southern border since October (which is start of fiscal year 2023). During Trump’s last year in office that was how many migrants came all year in his last year, 2020. Biden last week said his visit to El Paso, Texas is to assess border enforcement operations, meet with the local officials and community leaders, possibly also migrants. The US president added that he will listen about what US immigration enforcement officials and communities need in order to appropriately manage the influx of migrants arriving on the southern border.
