Biden in Texas for first border visit as president
President Joe Biden visited the US-Mexico border on Sunday for the first time since taking office, tackling one of the most politically charged issues in the country as he prepares for a re-election bid. His visit was not expected to result in new policies, but rather to demonstrate that he is taking the issue seriously and to strengthen relations with Border Patrol agents, some of whom have bristled at the rollback of hardline enforcement policies by the White House. Biden announced on Thursday his administration's plan to block Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants at the border, expanding the nationalities of those who can be expelled back to Mexico. The long-term goal of Congress reforming America's creaky immigration system is unlikely to succeed given Republicans' newly assumed control of the US House of Representatives. Right-wing lawmakers have repeatedly torpedoed US immigration reform proposals over the past two decades. Biden sent Congress an immigration reform plan on his first day in office two years ago, but it floundered due to opposition from Republicans, who also blocked his request for US$3.5 billion to beef up border enforcement. Republicans are pushing their own plans for the border following a midterm election in they seized a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. Texas' Republican Governor, Greg Abbott, met Biden in El Paso and handed him a letter outlining five steps to address the border crisis – including detaining the millions of people in the United States illegally. Republican US Representative Jim Jordan told Fox News on Sunday that his party could help the Democrats – but only if Biden adopted the enforcement policies of former president Donald Trump. Those policies included separating children from their migrant parents as part of a "zero-tolerance" approach to deter illegal immigration. "They've allowed now a situation where frankly, we no longer have a border," Jordan said. (Reuters)