President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday to install electric vehicle charging stations at the border with Canada and Mexico and protect illegal immigrants from “xenophobia and discrimination.”
The measures were part of a package delivered during the North American Leaders’ Summit held in Mexico City with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The three leaders released a joint package of measures during the summit, with commitments including investing in semiconductors across the continent, implementing measures to reduce emissions, and combatting arms and drug trafficking. The package also called for installing electric vehicle charging stations, and mitigating illegal migration — which the White House labeled as “irregular migration” in their readout.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – JANUARY 09: U.S. President Joe Biden and President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shake hands during a welcome ceremony as part of the ‘2023 North American Leaders’ Summit at Palacio Nacional on January 09, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico. President Lopez Obrador, USA President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gather in Mexico from January 9 to 11 as part of the 10th North American Leaders’ Summit. The agenda includes topics on the climate change, immigration, trade and economic integration, security among others. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Biden visited El Paso, Texas, before traveling to Mexico City for the summit, marking the first time he visited the border during his presidency. He met with local officials, walked along the border wall and went to a migrant center, but did not go to the downtown of the city where hundreds of migrants were sleeping on the streets. (RELATED: ‘An Injustice’: El Paso Locals ‘Disappointed’ Biden Didn’t See Consequences Of The Border Crisis During Trip)
Before his trip, the president blamed Republicans for stalling funding as the cause of the problems at the border, and announced policies intended to limit the number of migrants coming from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti to 30,000 a month.
The three leaders announced in their package that the U.S., Canada and Mexico will work to counter “xenophobia and discrimination against migrants and refugees by promoting balanced public narratives on migrants and refugees” and working together to address the “root causes” of migration — a project Vice President Kamala Harris has apparently been missing from for months.
Further measures included the launch of a virtual program for migrants to register in before traveling to the U.S., increased access to in-person legal pathway registration and “sharing best practices to increase promptness, efficiency, and fairness for the asylum processing systems.”
The border has experienced record-breaking migrant encounters in the fiscal year 2022, amounting to 2.3 million. The number climbed steeply after Biden took office and ended former President Donald Trump’s border wall. Illegal immigrants told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they came to the U.S. specifically because of the Biden administration.
In remarks after the summit, the Mexican president thanked Biden for not contributing to building a border wall on the border.
Biden did not build “even one meter of wall, and that, we thank you for that sir … although the conservatives don’t like it,” he said.