Biden says he intends to visit US-Mexico border next week

Mr Biden’s trip will be his first visit to the US-Mexico border since taking office

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said his aides are making preparations for him to visit the US-Mexico border when he travels to Mexico City for a trilateral summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

Speaking in Hebron, Kentucky, before he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington following an appearance at a Covington, Kentucky bridge being rebuilt with funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law he signed last year, Mr Biden was asked if he’d visit the border during his trip.

He replied: “That's my intention, we're working out the details now”.

The visit would be his first trip to the United States’ southern border since he took office in January 2021, and would come amid a surge in asylum claims by migrants from South and Central America that has contributed to a humanitarian crisis in border communities that are struggling to deal with the influx in migrants.

Republicans and right-wing media figures have frequently complained that Mr Biden has not travelled to the border to see the effects of the migration crisis, which they claim is exacerbated by the Biden administration’s refusal to retain harsh Trump-era measures meant to keep nonwhite asylum seekers out of the US.

His planned trip would also come just weeks after the US Supreme Court temporarily forced the administration to keep in place an administrative order issued on public health grounds at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had the effect of allowing border authorities to turn away a significant portion of asylum seekers.

District court judges appointed by Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, have frequently intervened to keep the Biden administration from implementing its’ own immigration policies. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a case over whether Republican-led states can intervene to force the federal government to keep Trump-era policies in place in the coming months.