Faced with the daily arrival of thousands of migrants from Mexico, American states and the federal border police declare themselves overwhelmed, a crisis which exposes the Biden administration to heavy fire from its Republican adversaries.
In recent weeks, the border police have reported some 10,000 crossings each day, an even faster rate than in previous months.
It counted for the 2023 fiscal year (from October 2022 to September 2023) more than 2.4 million interceptions of migrants by land, still increasing compared to previous years.
Starting Tuesday, it closed the railroad tracks on the Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, bridges due to a “resurgence” in illegal entry by freight trains.
Vehicle crossings have been suspended again at Eagle Pass since the beginning of the month, as has a crossing point in Arizona and another in California, with the border police saying they have to redeploy their personnel to concentrate them on interception and registration of migrants.
Accusing President Joe Biden of “deliberate inaction” in this area, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, signed a controversial law on Monday criminalizing illegal entry into his state.
This declared supporter of Donald Trump symbolically signed this law in Brownswille, in front of a section of the border wall, the flagship project of the former Republican president, who is campaigning on the visceral rejection of immigration.
The law creates a “criminal offense of illegally entering Texas from a foreign country,” punishable by six months in prison, or up to 20 years for repeat offenses.
The text, supposed to come into force in March, gives state authorities the power to arrest migrants and deport them to Mexico, prerogatives in principle falling to federal authorities.
The next day, several human rights organizations, including the influential ACLU, filed a lawsuit to challenge its constitutionality.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, although a Democrat, also accused the Biden administration of “refusing to do its job”, accusing it in particular of closing a crossing point in her state. She announced on December 15 the sending of National Guard forces to the border.
“System down”
The reasons for this recent influx are not clear. The border police blame “disinformation distilled by smugglers to vulnerable people”.
Several migrants met by AFP on Thursday in Texas spoke of rumors about a risk of imminent closure of the border.
“There were rumors that from the 20th, they would no longer let anyone in,” explained Yurianlis Alexmar Camacho, 32, who came from Venezuela with her husband and four children.
Joe Biden will send his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Minister of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to Mexico in the coming days to discuss with Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador ways to stem this wave of mass arrivals, said the White House on Thursday.
“The president understands the need to repair this immigration system, which has been broken for decades,” his spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre repeated Thursday.
On December 6, he said he was ready to make “significant compromises” with the Republicans who are demanding a clear tightening of immigration policy in exchange for lifting their blockage in Congress on aid to Ukraine in the face of the Russia.
The situation of the Democratic president is all the more delicate as his progressive electorate expects him to break with Donald Trump’s policy towards these migrants, mainly from Latin America and who say they are fleeing poverty and poverty. violence.
In any case, the flow does not appear to be about to dry up. Panama reported on December 6 that since the start of the year, half a million people had crossed the dangerous Darien jungle, separating this country from Colombia, to reach the United States, double the number in 2022.
