HEBRON, Ky. (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of a summit scheduled for next week in the Mexican capital with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. It would be the president’s first visit to the border since taking office.
“That’s my intent, now we’re laying down the details,” Biden told reporters on a trip to Kentucky.
Upon his return to the White House, Biden said he looks forward to “what’s going on” at the border and will also comment on border security on Thursday.
The United States’ southern border has seen a huge surge in migrants, even as the United States enforced a public health law that allows U.S. authorities to deny many people seeking asylum in the country. Republican leaders have criticized the president for policies they believe are ineffective on border security and question why he hasn’t traveled there yet.
Immigration will be one of the main topics at the summit on Monday and Tuesday, when Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are hosted by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Early in his presidency, Biden put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the White House’s strategy to address the border migration challenge and work with Central American countries to address the root causes of the problem. The vice president visited El Paso, Texas, in June 2021 and was criticized for choosing a location too far from the epicenter of border crossings, which strained federal resources.
The United States Supreme Court has upheld, at least for now, the asylum restrictions introduced during Donald Trump’s presidency, known as Title 42, referring to a 1944 public health law. After Biden agreed to end them, Republicans sued to keep them. Title 42 was implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but there has been criticism that the restrictions were used as a pretext by the Trump administration to prevent the passage of migrants.
The Biden administration has yet to implement systemic changes to manage the expected wave of immigrants when restrictions end. In Congress, a bipartisan immigration bill was struck just before Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.
Biden made his comments about the border visit during a stop in Kentucky at a highway bridge that receives federal funding.
Trump visited the US side of the border several times during his presidency, including once in McAllen, Texas, where he claimed that Mexico would pay for the border wall.
American taxpayers ultimately paid the cost. Mexican officials had flatly rejected the idea when Trump pushed for it. “No,” then-President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted in May 2018. “Mexico will never pay for a wall. Not now, not ever. Sincerely, Mexico (all of us).”
___
Long reported from Washington.
