The Biden administration will be reopening four ports of entry that were closed over the last few weeks due to a major surge of illegal immigrants arriving.
As the surge has started to ease, officials in the White House said that the ports can now open once again.
Those ports include San Francisco, Eagle Pass in Texas, as well as Nogales and Lukeville in Arizona.
In a statement sent on Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said:
“CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to this evolving situation. We continue to assess security situations, adjust our operational plans, and deploy resources to maximize enforcement efforts against those noncitizens who do not use lawful pathways or processes – such as scheduling an appointment via CBP One – and those without a legal basis to remain in the United States.”
A group of House Republicans was scheduled to visit the city of Eagle Pass Wednesday, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
While that’s happening, officials in the Biden administration have urged the House GOP caucus to start negotiating a border funding deal, as the same is currently being done by the Senate.
Throwing fuel on the fire, a White House senior official said that the GOP needs to “stop playing games and stop playing politics” and instead work with the Biden administration as well as the Senate “to pass meaningful reforms.”
Those comments came after Johnson said the White House was clearing immigrants out of Eagle Pass before his delegation arrived, so that the situation didn’t look as bad in photographs.
Johnson posted two photographs beside each other in a recent X social media post. The first was taken weeks ago and showed many migrants there, compared to the current photo that only shows one.
The House Speaker accompanied those photos with the message:
“Here is Eagle Pass just weeks ago vs. yesterday. The Biden administration decided to divert the flood of illegal immigrants to another location in order to keep them out of the camera shots during @HouseGOP’s visit to Eagle Pass.
“Don’t be fooled, they are still being released into our country. Under President Biden, our Southern border is a disaster.”
Democrats along the southern border haven’t been happy with the Biden administration’s handling of immigration, either. For instance, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs said that she was glad the ports were reopening, though she said that it shouldn’t have been closed in the first place.
In December, Hobbs sent soldiers from the National Guard to her state’s southern border once the federal government closed the Lukeville port.
As Hobbs said in a statement this week:
“The closure of the Lukeville Port of Entry caused a month of strain and concern for Arizona’s border communities. While the reopening is welcome news, this closure shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“[Arizona’s ports of entry] are vital to national security and trade, and it’s critical that the federal government sends more resources to ensure this does not happen again.”
