President Biden announced on Wednesday that he will travel to the US-Mexico border for the first time as president next week to observe the results of record-breaking illegal immigration.
Biden said that it is his intention to go to the border.
After presiding over roughly 2.4 million border arrests in fiscal year 2022, the president added in what might have been a jest that he wanted to see peace and security when he visited the border.
Biden also said that, “I’m going to be making a speech tomorrow on border security and you’ll hear more about it tomorrow.”
Uncertainty surrounds Biden’s actual arrival time. In order to meet with the presidents of Canada and Mexico, he will fly to Mexico City on Monday and Tuesday.
The trip is intended to counteract criticism of the president from Republicans and border state officials, but it may put Biden in jeopardy since he has tried to separate himself from the humanitarian crisis that his detractors attribute to his policies.
In June 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Guatemala and Mexico, but her journey was overshadowed by her effort to explain why she had been reluctant to go to the border. She eventually went there a few weeks later in her capacity as Biden’s choice to stop the migrant influx.
Biden hasn’t been to the border while serving as president, and it’s unknown if he ever did during his five-decade political career.
Only one instance, in which Biden briefly crossed the border after flying at El Paso’s airport in 2008 for an engagement in New Mexico, has been given to the media by the White House. The path taken by President Biden’s motorcade briefly follows the border between the United States and Mexico.
