Abbott And Mayorkas Spar Over Immigration As Biden Heads To Border For First Official Visit

Topline

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sparred with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) over the Biden Administration’s handling of the border crisis, with both sides blaming each other for a lack of coordination as President Joe Biden heads to El Paso on Sunday for his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Key Facts

Mayorkas accused Abbott’s administration of failing to cooperate with the federal government by exploiting migrants for “political purposes,” he said in an interview Sunday on ABC’s This Week, referring to the Texas governor busing migrants to sanctuary cities, including Washington, D.C., and New York.

Abbott, meanwhile, criticized the Biden Administration for allegedly planning the visit to Texas without consulting Abbott’s administration, claiming that his staff received a “random email” on Saturday night requesting he meet Biden on the tarmac upon his arrival, he said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.

Abbott said Biden’s newly announced plan that would expand a parole program for Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans, but also rapidly expel them to Mexico if they cross the border without authorization, “is not border enforcement, it is border crossing enticement.”

Abbott called on Biden to detain and prosecute people crossing the border illegally, “aggressively reinforce” Trump-era immigration policies to deny migrants at the border and build a border wall.

Tangent

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) announced Sunday he would introduce legislation to allow military force to aid the Mexican army in fighting cartels at the southern border, he said on Sunday Morning Futures.

Big Number

2.2 million. The number of arrests made at the border during fiscal year 2022 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the most ever recorded. Almost 10% of arrestees last fiscal year were Cuban citizens, and another 7.4% hailed from Nicaragua and 8.5% from Venezuela, a stark change from previous years, when the vast majority of migrants were citizens of Mexico or a handful of nearby countries in Central America.

News Peg

Biden will land Sunday afternoon in El Paso, for his first official visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. He is scheduled to meet with border agents and local officials before flying to Mexico City to meet with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Key Background

Border arrests have surged in recent years, a trend that the Biden Administration has blamed on poverty and violence in Central and South America but Republicans have blamed on Biden’s immigration policies. The administration is preparing for the end of the Trump-era Title 42 program that allows U.S. officials to rapidly expel migrants at the border due to Covid-19 concerns. The program is controversial, with supporters arguing it controls illegal border crossings while opponents say it prevents migrants from exercising their legal right to seek asylum. The Biden Administration sought to end Title 42 earlier this year, despite expanding it in recent months to some migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua. The policy was kept in place by the Supreme Court last month while the Republican-led lawsuit against its expiration plays out in court. Biden said last week he waited to visit the border until decisions were made about Title 42.

Chief Critic

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) criticized Biden’s expansion of Title 42 to include Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans. The senators warned it will “do nothing to restore the rule of law at the border” and will “enrich human smuggling networks” instead, in a statement issued Thursday.