This was Biden's visit to the border with Mexico

The president of United States, Joe Biden, visited the Las Americas Bridge on Sunday, that connects the city of El Paso, Texas, with Ciudad Juárez, in Mexico, during his first visit to the border in his two years in office.

Biden, accompanied by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, met with Border Patrol agents and observed a series of demonstrations of tactics used by authorities to requisition people and vehicles at the border crossing.

Minutes after landing in the city, the president Biden held a brief meeting with the governor of Texas, the Republican Greg Abbott, a controversial figure and critic of the current government, who for the past year led the sending of migrants by bus from the border to different cities in the northeast of the country, such as Washington DC and New York.

Abbott handed Biden a letter, where he tells him that his visit to the border is too late and accuses him of carrying out an "open border" policy. “This chaos is a direct result of his failure to enforce the immigration laws” of the United States, the governor said in the letter.

Biden's trip comes days after his government announced new immigration restrictions and in the midst of an increase in the arrival of people at the border, from countries like Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Secretary Mayorkas passed reporters on the flight from Washington to El Paso that his agency has already sent more than 100 new Border Patrol agents to El Paso and that a new facility will open that will process up to 1,000 people per day.

As part of an agreement with Mexico, the United States will begin expelling migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba who cross the border irregularly. The López Obrador government agreed to receive up to 30,000 migrants a monthaccording to the US authorities.

With this measure, the Biden administration expands the use of Title 42, a controversial health standard that was imposed by former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and that the current administration has maintained under court order.

The decision was harshly criticized by senators from the Democratic Party and organizations defending human rights.

A group of four influential Democratic senators, including New Jersey Rep. Bob Menendez, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, They rejected the new government measures.

“Continuing to use this failed and inhumane policy of the Trump era will do nothing to restore the rule of law at the border." Menéndez, Ray Luján, Alex Padilla and Cory Booker wrote in a statement.

Since it went into effect in 2020, Title 42 has allowed the arrest of more than 2.5 million migrants at the border, according to data from the International Rescue Committee.