Biden to announce border visit, new measures as pressure grows over overwhelming migrant surge

President Biden on Thursday will make a major speech on border security and enforcement, in which he will announce expanded border measures, ahead of his first ever visit to the besieged southern border next week — as his administration struggles to deal with a historic surge in migrants.

Biden will use the White House speech to announce an expansion of a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelan nationals to include Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans. That program will allow 30,000 individuals a month from all four counties to be paroled into the U.S. for a two-year period as long as they have a financial sponsor and pass other conditions. Those who attempt to enter illegally are made ineligible for the program.

That expanded program will be combined with an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities, allowing up to 30,000 of those who enter the U.S. illegally each month to be quickly returned to Mexico. Additionally, Biden is expected announce an increased use of an alternative removal authority – expedited removal – to remove those who do not claim asylum and who cannot be expelled under Title 42.  

MAYORKAS SAYS MASSIVE MIGRANT NUMBERS ‘STRAINING OUR SYSTEM’, CALLS FOR CONGRESS TO ACT

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 27: U.S. President Joe Biden walks to speak to reporters as he and first lady Jill Biden leave the White House and walk to Marine One on the South Lawn on December 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. 
(Anna Moneymaker)

The administration will also triple refugee resettlement from Latin American and Caribbean countries, setting a goal of up to 20,000 refugees from Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The speech comes as the administration has taken heavy fire over the handling of the crisis and Biden is due to visit El Paso, Texas on Sunday – one of the areas most overwhelmed by the crisis. He is expected to assess border enforcement operations and meet with local officials.

There were more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in FY 2022 alone, topping the then-historic 1.7 million encountered in FY 2021. So far in FY 2023, which began in October, the first two months have outpaced the same period last year — with 233,740 encounters in November, compared to 174,845 in 2021 and 73,994 in 2020.

While the administration has claimed the border is “secure,” it has also acknowledged the challenge that the overwhelming numbers pose to officials and border towns. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview Wednesday that the number of encounters is “straining our system.”

Republicans and some border officials have blamed the administration for rolling back Trump-era border security policies and interior enforcement. The Biden administration has blamed the Trump administration’s closing off of legal asylum pathways and also aimed to target “root causes” of the crisis like poverty, violence and corruption in Central America. It has also pointed to efforts it has made to increase resources to the border, anti-smuggling campaigns and greater cooperation with Western Hemisphere countries.

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Biden is also expected to renew administration calls for a sweeping immigration bill to be passed by Congress, which includes greater legal immigration pathways as well as a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. — but that bill has so far failed due to a lack of Republican support.

The border is facing even more uncertainty at the start of 2023 over the question of the Title 42 public health order — which was implemented in 2020 by the Trump administration due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been used to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants at the southern border under both administrations.

A court ordered that Title 42 be ended in December after a federal judge found it unlawful, but that was put on hold by the Supreme Court and oral arguments will begin on that case in the Spring.

This is a breaking news story; check back for updates.