By BETHANY BLANKLEY | THE CENTER SQUARE | AND MUST READ ALASKA
Ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to El Paso on Sunday, the city on the border with Mexico began clearing the sidewalks of homeless migrants, online video from the city shows.
A local border security group organized by a Border Patrol agent’s wife plans a protest during Biden’s visit.
Biden’s trip is his first to the southern border since he’s been president. His visit is to a sector where Border Patrol agents say they are overwhelmed with an influx of people. A border agent was shot there Thursday.
A humanitarian crisis developed in the city over the past few months, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser says. The city began busing thousands out last year but as numbers reached historic levels last month, Leeser declared a state of emergency.
On Dec. 6, Biden said he wasn’t visiting the border because he had “more important things to do.”
Nearly one month later to the day, he reversed course and on Thursday, said he was going to El Paso because the city “needed help.” He also announced he was expanding the parole process to release more people into the U.S., a policy over which he’s already been sued for allegedly violating federal law.
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska said, “While I’m glad to see President Biden finally visit the border, it is unfathomable that he has not done so yet as president – or apparently ever – especially when considering the crises that have unfolded under his watch. The humanitarian crisis, the national security crisis, and the health care crisis transpiring right now on our southern border is a tragedy of immense proportions and furthermore, a dereliction of duty that this president and his administration continue to turn a blind eye to and, at times, appears to deliberately worsen.”
Sullivan said the Biden Administration has underfunded the Border Patrol and “stopped construction of the border wall, halted deportations, and suspended the successful ‘remain in Mexico’ policy. The result? Since President Biden took office, there have been more than 4.3 million illegal crossings at the southern border.”
Alaska is not a border state, Sullivan noted, but the crisis has reached Alaska “like every other, including our most rural communities, every day. Alaska experienced the largest percent increase in drug overdose deaths in 2021 of any state. Nationally, drug overdose deaths over the last two years – largely driven by fentanyl – have become the leading cause of death for adults ages 18-45 years old. In 2022, over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border – a new record high. This is enough to kill the entire U.S. population 9 times.”
Sullivan said it’s past time President Biden accept responsibility for this self-made disaster and start enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. “The successful ‘remain in Mexico’ program needs to be kept and our southern border wall needs to be completed,” he said.
Irene Armendariz-Jackson, president of a Border Security Coalition and wife of a Border Patrol agent, has been posting videos online of the streets of El Paso before and after Biden’s announcement. One video posted Jan. 1 shows people lying on the ground next to each other wrapped in blankets.
It may be a new year but it’s the same border crisis,” she said. “Here are some videos of El Paso just yesterday. A humanitarian nightmare is unfolding.”
On Jan. 3, local writer Ivan Pierre Aguirre posted video of people lying on the sidewalk in near freezing temperatures.
“With near freezing temperatures in El Paso early (6:45 am) this morning a group of migrants who stayed the night outside use the heat coming from the engine of a parked bus to try to keep warm,” he said. “When asked if they care about standing near the fumes they said they risk to try to stay warm.”
