Migration crisis: Biden stops in Texas on his way to Mexico
EL PASO: President Joe Biden arrived on Sunday at the US-Mexico border, which is facing record numbers of migrant arrivals, making his first visit since taking office.
Accused by the Republican opposition of turning a blind eye to this crisis, the American leader is meeting with border police in El Paso, Texas, to address the weak point in his balance sheet.
As he stepped off the plane, he was greeted by ultra-conservative Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who accused the Democrat of turning the border into a sieve.
Joe Biden’s visit to the US southern border is the first leg of a three-day trip that will take him to Mexico City, focusing on immigration issues and drug trafficking.
In the capital of Mexico, the American president will participate in the summit with his Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Regional solution”
The US president is accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who called on ABC on Sunday for a “regional solution” to the migration crisis.
The White House announced the measures on Thursday to try to ease the cap, which still recorded more than 230,000 arrests in November.
Up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela would be allowed into the US each month, but they would have to arrive by air to avoid increasing the workload of border guards on the ground.
On the other hand, according to the American executive, those who cross the border illegally will be returned more easily.
The announcements were criticized by human rights groups, who accused him of undermining the right to asylum, as well as the right-wing, who regularly accused him of being silent on the issue.
Fentanyl
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Joe Biden’s visit to the region will also be marked by the tragedy of fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times stronger than heroin, whose production and trade is controlled by Mexican cartels with chemical precursors from China. ).
Of the 108,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2021, nearly two-thirds are related to synthetic opioids. According to the DEA, the amount of fentanyl seized in 2022 alone is more than is needed to kill the entire US population.
Ahead of Biden’s arrival, Mexico on Thursday captured Ovidio Guzman, one of the country’s top meth traffickers, in an operation that killed 10 law enforcement officers and 19 members of the Sinaloa cartel.
According to security expert Ricardo Marquez, because the networks of this arrest do not affect the structure of the Sinaloa Cartel, “When there are meetings like this, there is always something that the Mexican authorities can offer sooner or later.” It covers 50 countries.
However, after 15 years of a purely military strategy, the United States and Mexico announced a change in approach to counternarcotics policy in 2021, focusing on the causes of human trafficking.
About 340,000 people have died in violence in Mexico since the military was deployed to fight drug cartels in 2006.
In the midst of this bloodbath, the Mexican government has filed two lawsuits against the US arms industry, which it accuses of fueling the violence of drug traffickers in its territory.
Climate change will also be on the agenda, with both countries announcing a $48 billion renewable energy investment project at COP 27 that Mexico promises to boost efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The need to develop supply chains for electronic components to reduce Washington’s dependence on Asia will also be at the center of the exchange.
