Biden skips Valley for border trip but is considering future visit, congressman says

President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (Sarah Silbiger | Pool | Abaca Press | TNS)

Despite calls from local leaders for President Joe Biden to visit the Rio Grande Valley, the president will instead be making a stop nearly 800 miles northwest in the border town of El Paso.

The details about his visit were confirmed in a statement made by U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, of El Paso, Thursday, just one day after Biden announced that he would be visiting the southern border.

“Decades of Congress addressing immigration solely as a border issue, while actively shrinking legal pathways, and failing to get beyond paralyzing political gridlock has created a humanitarian crisis that is being unfairly shouldered by communities like mine,” Escobar’s statement read. “As the situation continues to evolve, I am grateful that President Biden has accepted my invitation to El Paso.”

While Biden is headed to El Paso, Rio Grande Valley officials have also requested he visit this region, which has handled these immigration issues for years.

U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, however, noted the overwhelming number of migrants to the El Paso area is why the president will be making a stop there, ahead of his meeting in ​​Mexico City with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

He also did not rule out the possibility of Biden visiting the Valley in the future.

“Right now they have the highest surge along the border in El Paso,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve been in communication with them, and they intend to make a trip to the RGV in the future. We’ll continue to coordinate to make that happen.”

Like McAllen and Brownsville have seen, El Paso has expanded all of its respite centers and potential housing they have for migrants. El Paso also has people sleeping on the street, an issue the Valley has largely avoided over the years.

“We have a problem across the border in Texas, but certainly El Paso is the most egregious. I think that’s what prompted them to make that decision. But they’ve assured me that they will be making a trip to Brownsville and my congressional district of McAllen in the future,” Gonzalez said.

According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, the El Paso area has the highest number of encounters with migrants — including ​​U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Title 8 Apprehensions, Office of Field Operations (OFO) Title 8 Inadmissibles, and Title 42 Expulsions — in the entire southern border.

El Paso has had 106,561 encounters during the 2023 fiscal year, followed by Del Rio with 90,482 and the Valley with 56,118.

On Dec. 17 of last year, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency as a result of the hundreds of migrants sleeping on the streets as nearly the entire country experienced freezing cold temperatures.

Biden’s planned trip to El Paso marks the president’s first trip to the southern border since taking office. Former President Donald Trump visited the Valley twice during his term — on Jan. 10, 2019 and again on Jan. 12, 2021.

The former president also visited the Valley on June 30, 2021 with Gov. Greg Abbott.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who has toured the border on several occasions, also released a statement in response to Biden’s announcement that he would be visiting the southern border.

“While I’m glad President Biden will finally come to the border, his visit can’t be a check-the-box photo-op like his Border Czar’s stunt more than a year and a half ago, which was unserious and unacceptable,” Cornyn’s statement read. “He must take the time to learn from some of the experts I rely on the most, including local officials and law enforcement, landowners, nonprofits, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s officers and agents, and folks who make their livelihoods in border communities on the front lines of his crisis.

“If he wants to make this a meaningful trip that seeks tough solutions to the unmitigated disaster his policies have created, I’d be happy to point him in the right direction.”

In November, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez issued an invitation to the president inviting him to visit Hidalgo County, an area that has been in the crosshairs of national media since long before Biden took office.

“El Paso has had a more serious problem than we’ve had, so I can see and understand that (Biden) would want to go to the belly of the beast, per se,” Cortez said Thursday. “I’m not upset at all. I’m just glad that he finally made a decision that is important for him, our chief executive of our country, to come and see the serious problems that we have on the border.”

Cortez said that he hopes Biden’s visit to the southern border will influence legislative change to improve efficiency when it comes to immigration issues.

“The biggest problem that I have is the drugs — the drugs that are continuously coming here in very, very large amounts,” Cortez said. “We’re over there chasing immigrants, and I think the more serious problem is all those heavy, heavy drugs that kill people. I’m glad that he finally decided to come, and hopefully something good will happen.”