The US Border Patrol and several states have been overwhelmed recently, lacking the resources to handle thousands of migrants coming from Mexico.
In the year from October 2022 to September 2023, there were more than 2.4 million land border crossings. In recent weeks, border officials have counted about 10,000 daily border crossings, many times more than in previous months when migrants were arriving at an ever-increasing rate.
As a consequence, authorities closed railways in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday due to an “resurgence” of illegal migrants entering the US via goods trains. Since early December, vehicular cross-border traffic has been also suspended at Eagle Pass, as well as at points of entry in California and Arizona.
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott accused Biden of “deliberate inaction” on the border issue and this week approved a controversial law criminalising illegal entry into his state. The law, which will take effect in March, makes it a crime to enter Texas illegally from another country.
In response, several human rights organisations, including the influential ACLU, immediately filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law.
On the flip side, even political allies in border states held Biden responsible for the current state of migration in the US. Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs declared that “the federal government is refusing to do its job to secure our border and keep our communities safe.” Hobbs announced that she would send Arizona National Guard troops to the border to help solve some of the problems.
As a consequence, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will travel to Mexico in the coming days to meet with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in an effort to stem the relentless flow, the White House announced Thursday.
“The president understands that we have to fix this immigration system. It has been broken for decades now,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the same day.
Earlier this month, Biden said he was willing to compromise with congressional Republicans on the border control plan – they are demanding a specific tightening of immigration policy in exchange for agreeing to a new aid package for Ukraine.
The reasons for the recent surge in migration are not entirely clear. Customs and Border Protection has blamed “smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals.”
