It took him nearly two years, but President Joe Biden finally decided to visit the southern U.S. border where illegal immigration, primarily thanks to his lackluster policies, is still spiraling out of control.
His visit to the Texas border city of El Paso didn’t pass the smell test for many, including Cassandra Garcia, an outspoken wife of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and former Texas District 28 congressional candidate.
“As a Border Patrol wife, I know this. Biden’s ‘border visit’ was meaningless & hollow. He won’t change. On day 1, he stopped enforcing immigration laws, rolled back effective border policies, & tied the hands of our Border Patrol. But, root causes & asylum apps…” Garcia tweeted Sunday, the day of the president’s visit.
As a Border Patrol wife, I know this. Biden’s “border visit” was meaningless & hollow. He won’t change.
On day 1, he stopped enforcing immigration laws, rolled back effective border policies, & tied the hands of our Border Patrol.
But, root causes & asylum apps…?
— Cassy Garcia (@CasandraLGarcia) January 9, 2023
Garcia was referencing several new policies and ideas launched by the Biden administration in recent weeks to combat what the administration spent nearly two years calling a “challenge” instead of what it is, a full-blown crisis.
Vice President Kamala Harris, early on, was placed in charge of investigating the “root causes” of the immigration issue. However, she’s taken plenty of flak ever since, as she’s accomplished virtually nothing.
Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and vocal opponent of the Biden administration’s policies on the immigration issue, slammed the president’s visit as nothing more than a “box-checking exercise.”
“The trip by @POTUS to El Paso is nothing but a box-checking exercise combined with propaganda… and will do nothing to stop the flood at our border because the administration does not want to — and so is refusing to. #SecureOurBorderNow,” Roy tweeted.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was vocal on Biden’s visit. In a Saturday tweet, he pointed out the other big story before the president arrived in El Paso, in what looked to be a highly-coordinated effort to clean and sanitize the city’s streets to make it appear as if the issue isn’t as bad as some in the media report.
“El Paso rushes to remove illegal immigrants and migrant camps that are crowding downtown before Biden arrives. Predictable. Biden does not want America to see the chaos that he has caused on the border. This is just a photo op and a game of pretend,” Abbott tweeted.
El Paso rushes to remove illegal immigrants and migrant camps that are crowding downtown before Biden arrives.
Predictable.
Biden does not want America to see the chaos that he has caused on the border.
This is just a photo op and a game of pretend.https://t.co/4KJqorJjrP
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 7, 2023
The Texas governor doubled down when Biden touched down, hand-delivering the president a scathing letter regarding the dumpster fire of immigration policy Biden has created. The letter also contained a detailed list of how to mitigate the damage and ultimately bring the situation back under manageable control.
“[Y]our visit avoids the sites where mass illegal immigration occurs and sidesteps the thousands of angry Texas property owners whose lives have been destroyed by your border policies. Even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which had overrun downtown El Paso because your Administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis. This chaos is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted,” Abbott wrote.
The U.K. Daily Mail reported that El Paso city officials said it was merely a coincidence that many of the encampments that flooded the streets of downtown El Paso were cleared away in an effort that the New York Post described as taking place “under cover of darkness” before the president’s visit.
The Post noted that multiple migrant encampments centered around the Sacred Heart Church were conveniently cleaned up over a two-night period before the president’s arrival. Several Twitter users posted images of the before and after versions of the same area.
“News film crew took before & after pics of an El Paso street to show how the city actually looked before Biden comes for his visit. Typical!” one user tweeted.
News film crew took before & after pics of an El Paso street to show how the city actually looked before Biden comes for his visit. Typical! pic.twitter.com/At1CtkSAsK
— Kimberly Ball (@Kimberlyballtex) January 8, 2023
According to Newsmax, Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a new Texas Republican lawmaker, said the president only viewed the “cleaned-up version” of what’s happening on the streets of Texas border cities and towns.
“He’s not talking to the people that he should, which are the Border Patrol agents, the people who are really being affected — the small business owners, the single moms, and families,” De La Cruz said, adding that she believes it was a photo op and nothing more.
While it’s about time the president spent a few hours out of his schedule to get a first-hand look at the situation at the border, Garcia is right on the money. Between the convenient cleaning up of the streets and the time of year Biden visited, which happens to be the month with the least number of encounters, the visit was virtually meaningless.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.