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Biden heads to U.S.-Mexican border as immigration issue heats up

US Materials 9 January 2023 00:57 (UTC +04:00)
Biden heads to U.S.-Mexican border as immigration issue heats up

President Joe Biden is headed to the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday for the first time since taking office nearly two years ago, tackling one of the most politically charged issues in the country as he prepares for a reelection bid.

Biden on Thursday announced fresh plans to block Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding the nationalities of those who can be expelled back to Mexico, and his visit to El Paso, Texas, is not expected to yield new policy breakthroughs.

Instead, it is meant to demonstrate that the Democratic president is taking the issue seriously, end nagging questions about when he plans to visit the border and shore up relations with Border Patrol, some of whose agents have bristled at the White House's rollback of hardline enforcement policies.

The longer-term goal of pushing Congress to pass laws to fix America's creaky immigration system is unlikely to succeed given Republicans' newly assumed control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Right-wing lawmakers have repeatedly torpedoed U.S. immigration reform proposals over the past two decades.

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