President Joe Biden left his Delaware home on Sunday to fly to El Paso, Texas, where he will be making his first visit to the border as president to see for himself the biggest crisis facing his administration.
But the White House schedule says he will spend just three hours on the ground much to the frustration of border agents who say they have waited two years for a chance to show him the problems they face.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 18,000 agents, said it was too little, too late.
‘You’re barely — from wheels down to wheels up — there three hours,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘You’re barely going to get the scope of what is happening.’
President Joe Biden flew to El Paso, Texas, on Sunday morning, making his first visit to the border as president to see for himself the scale of the crisis
He flew with first lady Jill from his Delaware home to Joint Base Andrews, where she said goodbye. She is traveling separately to Mexico City, when her husband is attending a summit
He said his members had waited two years for a chance to explain to the president that the surge in illegal crossings meant they spent all their time on paperwork rather than protecting the border from drug smugglers and criminals.
Border officials detained a record 2.2 million migrants in the last full fiscal year.
And the issue has been used by Republicans to attack Biden throughout his presidency, accusing him of opening the country’s borders.
Biden on Thursday launched plans to block Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding the nationalities of migrants who can be sent back to Mexico.
Combined with the visit to El Paso, one of the crossing hotspots, supporters say it demonstrates that he is serious about tackling the problem.
Some opponents have grudgingly conceded the benefits of the trip.
The end of the year brought a surge in migrant arrivals to coincide with what was expected to be the end of Title 42, and its tough restrictions. El Paso declared an emergency
But on Saturday, the same streets had no sign of the migrants who had camped there
Border agents’ union were dismissive of the visit to a cleaned-up El Paso in a Friday tweet
The Texas National Guard deployed along the border in El Paso at the end of last year. They are still there and have set up two miles of extra fencing with razor wire
Officials say their presence has forced migrants away from El Paso as they look to cross into the U.S. from Mexico, although numbers have dwindled anyway as they always do in January
John Cornyn, one of the state’s two Republican senators, said: ‘He must take the time to learn from some of the experts I rely on the most, including local officials and law enforcement, landowners, nonprofits, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s officers and agents, and folks who make their livelihoods in border communities on the front lines of his crisis.’
But Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, said it was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
‘Since day one of his presidency, Joe Biden has put drug smugglers and human traffickers before American families, allowing deadly fentanyl to pour across the border, and abandoned our brave Border Patrol agents,’ she said.
‘Simply put: Biden’s visit is nothing more than a photo op.’
The visit attracted controversy even before it began when it emerged last week that city authorities had begun clearing migrant camps
Areas that had once teemed with illegal arrivals around the Greyhound Bus station were eerily quiet on Saturday, a day before Biden’s visit.
‘I think they’re trying to send a message that they’re going to more consistently check people’s documented status, and if you have not been processed they are going to pick you up,’ Ruben Garcia of the Annunciation House aid group told the Associated Press.
Biden is due to visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center and meet with nonprofits and religious groups that support migrants arriving to the U.S.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said: ‘The president’s very much looking forward to seeing for himself firsthand what the border security situation looks like.
‘This is something that he wanted to see for himself.’
On Thursday Biden announced he was expanding Trump-era restrictions to rapidly expel Cuban, Haitian, and Nicaraguan migrants caught illegally crossing the southern border.
Instead, the U.S. will accept 30,000 people per month from those three countries, as well as Venezuela, so long as they arrive legally.
This is what Biden would have seen in mid-December when crowds crossed the Rio Grande river that separates the two countries and handed themselves in to border patrols
Migrant crossings at the southwest border have increased significantly in 2022
It represents an attempt both to head off Republican criticism that it has allowed record numbers to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and to address concerns from within the Democratic Party that Biden has been too slow to shake off Trump-era restrictions that prevent those in need from seeking asylum.
The administration is preparing for the end of Title 42, a public health regulation that allows the expulsion of migrants before they can claim asylum in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Yet the proposals immediately triggered anger on both sides, with Republicans saying it was too little, too late and some Democrats saying it expanded restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump.
Even in announcing the plan, Biden acknowledged that it was far from perfect.
‘The actions we’re announcing today will make things better … will make things better but will not fix the border problem completely,’ he said.
After El Paso, Biden flies on to Mexico City, where will meet with the leaders of Canada and Mexico for a North American leaders summit. Immigration will be on the agenda.