President Biden toured the busiest port in El Paso, met Border Patrol agents and spoke with workers at a federally funded migrant services center Sunday in his first visit to the southern border since becoming president, Politico reports. “They need a lot of resources,” Biden said when, asked by reporters what he had learned from the trip. “We’re going to get it for them.” Biden was greeted by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has sparred with the administration over immigration policies. “The president caused the chaos at the border, needed to be here. It just so happens he’s two years and about $20 billion too late,” Abbott said. Abbott handed Biden a letter with Republicans’ proposals for immigration policy, in which he labeled the visit a photo-op.
The governor has faced accusations of using migrants as pawns, for facilitating the drop-offs of thousands from the border to Northern cities. Border Patrol officers in El Paso showed Biden methods used for detecting smuggled goods, and he saw the border wall separating the city from Juarez, Mexico. Biden planned to meet with local business leaders, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre did not say whether Biden would speak to migrants. The White House unveiled a new policy last week to grant humanitarian “parole” to 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as well as crack down on those who don’t go through legal routes.