The Biden administration is struggling to respond to a growing number of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
US President Joe Biden has named Vice President Kamala Harris to lead his administration’s efforts, along with Mexico and Central America’s Northern Triangle countries, to try to stem the flow of immigration to the United States. Biden announced the move at a White House meeting with his immigration team on Wednesday.
“I can think of nobody who is better qualified to do this,” Biden said.
“When she speaks, she speaks for me. She doesn’t have to check with me,” he said.
The Biden administration has faced mounting criticism over the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers at the US border with Mexico in recent weeks.
In particular, increasing numbers of unaccompanied children, many of whom have been stuck in jail-like border stations for days while they await placement in overwhelmed government-run shelters, have drawn concern from immigration advocates.
Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo, reporting from Tijuana, Mexico, on Wednesday, said approximately 1,000 to 1,500 people have been waiting in a makeshift camp just outside El Chaparral border crossing, hoping to be allowed into the US.
The camp was set up about one month ago, Rapalo said, and many of the families fled their homes in Central America and southern Mexico due to threats of violence and recent natural disasters. Rapalo reported that many people living in the camp said they had not received instructions from Mexican or US authorities about what to do next, fuelling a sense of confusion, and “there is a sense of growing desperation among a lot of the people”. …
Source:ctvnews.ca
