The US President is giving himself two years before he travels to the wall to Mexico for the first time. The governor of Texas speaks of an "invasion" by immigrants and severely criticizes Joe Biden. He encourages cartels that make money from the human and fentanyl trade.
US President Joe Biden has visited the border with Mexico for the first time since taking office two years ago. Accompanied by border police officers, he took a close look at part of the wall. Texas Gov. Republican Greg Abbott accused Biden of not taking immigration laws seriously enough. "You have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the United States against invasion by faithfully complying with federal law," Abbott wrote in a letter he gave to Biden upon his arrival.
"Your visit to our southern border with Mexico today is $20 billion short and two years late," the letter said. Abbott is being discussed as a possible Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election. Biden has been repeatedly criticized by Republicans for his immigration policy. Republican governors of various states in the southern United States - including Abbott - had repeatedly sent coaches full of migrants to democratically governed states such as New York or the capital Washington last year to put pressure on Biden.
At the end of December, Biden extended a regulation for the quick deportation of illegal migrants. At the same time, he allowed regular entry into the United States for up to 30,000 immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela every month. US border guards apprehended around 2.2 million migrants at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022, which runs through the end of September - more than ever before. However, this number also includes multiple border crossings. In December, according to senior government officials, thousands of people a day came to the southern border of the United States.
Abbott accused Biden and his administration of failure. In El Paso, the migrant camps were specially cleared for Biden's visit, Abbott said. "Their open-border policies have emboldened the cartels that get rich off the deadly fentanyl trade and even humans." America is experiencing "the worst illegal immigration" in the country's history. The Texans would pay a particularly high price for this. On the way to Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas emphasized that the aim was to create incentives for safe and orderly admission and to eliminate smuggling organizations.
