Biden visits US-Mexico border as immigration issue takes centre stage

US President Biden's visit comes after Thursday's announcement that his administration plans to block Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants at the border, expanding the nationalities of those who can be expelled back to Mexico.

President Joe Biden also inspected a busy port of entry along the US-Mexico border on his first trip to the region after two years in office.
AFP

President Joe Biden also inspected a busy port of entry along the US-Mexico border on his first trip to the region after two years in office.

President Joe Biden has visited the US-Mexico border for the first time since taking office, visiting an El Paso, Texas entry point at the centre of debates over illegal immigration and smuggling.

He met on Sunday with uniformed customs and immigration staff at the Bridge of the Americas checkpoint, a complex of inspection buildings and fencing that separates the two countries.

Officers, including sniffer dog specialists, demonstrated techniques for searching vehicles.

In a sign of the deep tensions over immigration, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, handed Biden a letter upon his arrival in the state that said the "chaos" at the border was a "direct result" of the president's failure to enforce federal laws.

Biden was seeing "first hand... the incredible work of US Customs and Border Protection," Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters.

Biden was also due to visit a migrant support services centre, meeting with religious and humanitarian groups assisting "migrants fleeing oppression and economic collapse," Mayorkas said.

After the brief stop in El Paso, Biden was flying on to Mexico City for a regional summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, where regional migration problems were also set to be at the top of the agenda.

READ MORE: Migrants fear new rules as Biden prepares to visit US-Mexico border

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Under pressure

Biden is under pressure in the face of spiralling numbers of attempts at illegal border crossings and applications for asylum by people on perilous journeys from regional countries afflicted by repression, poverty or severe crime.

Adding to the sense of crisis has been a surge in cross-border smuggling of the highly addictive and often deadly narcotic fentanyl.

His visit sought to respond to Republican accusations that he has been ignoring the situation.

However, he's also taking flak from the left, with some Democrats and human rights organisations harshly criticising his plan to expand expulsions of undocumented migrants from four key countries, while crafting a legal pathway for limited numbers to seek entry.

"Our border communities represent the best of our nation's generosity and we're going to get them more support while expanding legal pathways for orderly immigration and limiting illegal immigration," Biden tweeted while on his way to Texas.

The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, accused Biden of putting "drug smugglers and human traffickers before American families."

The White House, however, said Biden was already starting to gain some control over the unruly border, while adding that only new laws enacted by Congress can fundamentally change the country's antiquated overall immigration system.

"We've very limited avenues for... dealing with a broken system," Mayorkas said.

However, he said that since a peak in mid-December, the number of people who stopped crossing illegally has "dropped precipitously" from around 2,000 people a day to 700.

READ MORE: Desperate migrants throng US-Mexico border amid asylum limbo

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