Biden calls Mexico president as illegal border crossings break all-time records
WASHINGTON — President Biden spoke Thursday with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — but broke little new ground as the number of daily illegal border crossings breaks all-time records with thousands of migrants camped out in border states awaiting processing.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stressed to reporters that Biden and Lopez Obrador discussed longstanding efforts to address “root causes” of migration as well as tentative ideas to stem the flow of people through Mexico.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the same briefing that “the president has done everything that he can — right? — on his own… [and] we also need funding” from Congress — drawing a sharp rebuke from the House GOP.
“The White House’s insistence that ‘the president has done everything that he can on his own’ to secure the border is an insult to the American people,” said Raj Shah, a spokesman for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who implored Biden in a Thursday letter to use his presidential powers to halt a mounting humanitarian crisis days from Christmas.
“In fact, it has been this administration’s policies — that President Biden can reverse — that have led to the historic crisis we are seeing on a daily basis,” Shah said.
In describing Biden’s talks with his Mexican counterpart, Kirby stressed that the leaders discussed dealing with underlying issues in other countries as an increasingly diverse group of migrants, including from outside the Americas, cross the border and apply for asylum.
“One of the things that President Lopez Obrador and [Biden] talked about today was trying to work at getting at the root causes of migration,” Kirby said — while also acknowledging an ongoing “big surge” and “significant spike” in illegal crossings.
A three-year Biden administration initiative to reduce illegal immigration by addressing “root causes” such as poverty, crime and corruption — led by Vice President Kamala Harris — has not reduced illegal crossings, the levels of which have risen dramatically.
“There’s a lot of factors and part of that is, of course, dealing with instability and political and domestic instability in the region,” said Kirby, who touted a Venezuela prisoner swap deal reached this week with socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro in which he agreed to free 21 opposition politicians.
“The work that we did with Venezuela here, not just to get Americans back, but to get the Maduro regime to ascribe to certain electoral reforms, that’s important — that’s important to help get at some of the root causes of migration,” he said.
Asked by a reporter whether Biden and Lopez Obrador discussed how to slow the current flow, Kirby said: “They did talk in broad terms about what can be done inside Mexico to slow that process down. And there are some things like checkpoints on rail lines and on highways and that kind of thing and the Mexican Armed Forces presence in the south also can be important to that as well.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will travel to Mexico in the near future to “flesh those modalities out a little bit.”
Kirby at one point admitted “more” must be done on the border — pointing to a pending request for additional funding for border operations and care of migrants allowed into the US.
“Part and parcel of the supplemental request was very much recognizing that more needs to be done on border security. And we’re willing to keep having that conversation with members of Congress,” he said.
The Biden administration has been forced to close two major rail links with Mexico amid the current rush to the border.
Lopez Obrador, whose office did not immediately release a readout of the call, said Thursday morning that Biden had requested the two men speak.
The Mexican leader said “I think migration” would be the topic of the conversation.
“Let’s see what he puts to us,” added Lopez Obrador, who is widely known by his initials, AMLO.
More than 12,600 people reportedly were processed by US Customs and Border Protection officers Monday, the most ever recorded in a single day.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott reacted to the surge by signing a law Monday that would allow state police to arrest people who illegally enter from Mexico — despite prior US Supreme Court rulings that immigration policy cannot be set by individual states.
Lopez Obrador has decried the Texas state law as inhumane.
Johnson, the top-ranking Republican in Washington, sent Biden a letter Thursday warning that “Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is at a breaking point.”
“All of this is the direct result of your administration’s policies,” Johnson wrote. “You have clearly undermined America’s sovereignty and security by ending the Remain in Mexico policy, reinstating catch-and-release, suspending asylum cooperative agreements with other nations, ignoring existing restraints on the abuse of parole, and halting border wall construction.”
“You also undermined Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) core mission, and even used a smartphone app to facilitate the release of border crossers into the United States,” he went on.
The House speaker demanded the president reverse these policies with swift executive action to expedite removals and reform parole and asylum policies and that he make use of Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The federal law would allow Biden to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate” if he “finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
Johnson added, “The wide-open border has caused unspeakable human tragedy for migrants and certainly for our own citizens.
“Countless children and adults have been victims of human trafficking and cartels have been emboldened and enriched,” he wrote. “Local communities have been devastated and terrorists and dangerous criminals have entered illegally and dispersed across our country. We are now more vulnerable to a terrorist attack on our homeland than ever.”
Winter typically draws fewer migrants due to freezing temperatures along the southwestern frontier, but this month’s spike in crossings comes after years of mounting increases, which Republicans attribute to Biden’s more welcoming policies for asylum seekers.
Many people who illegally cross the border are allowed into the US to await decisions on their claims of persecution, burdening local government resources in New York City and other popular destinations.
After an initial wait period, migrants seeking asylum are entitled to work permits.
The badly backlogged system of check-ins and court dates mean cases can stretch out well into the future.
Nearly 2.5 million people were apprehended after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30, in addition to an estimated 670,000 “gotaways” who eluded authorities.
That record-breaking tally followed a record-breaking nearly 2.4 million the year prior, itself following a record-breaking 1.7 million in fiscal 2021.
On his first day in office in January 2021, Biden halted funding to construct former President Donald Trump’s US-Mexico border wall.
Biden in June 2021 ended Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required most asylum seekers who reached the southern border to await US court rulings in Mexico.
The Department of Homeland Security in October said it was necessary to resume wall construction in Texas, citing an “acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers … to prevent unlawful entries,” but Biden distanced himself from the move and said he had to spend money appropriated by Congress.
