The mayor of El Paso, Texas, says the president’s controversial new policy can make a difference, but that Congress still needs to act.
When President Joe Biden this week unveiled his new restriction on asylum for migrants who illegally cross the southern border during times of high volume, he was flanked by multiple Texas mayors in a show of political support for the polarizing new policy.
One of those mayors was Oscar Leeser of El Paso. In April, more than 30,000 people crossed illegally into the U.S. and encountered the Border Patrol in the El Paso region, and Leeser told reporters during an event Wednesday in his city that he believes Biden’s new effort will deter migrants from making such a trip.
It will, because the consequences are greater now,” he said. “And that’s a difference.”
Not long before the mayor arrived to take questions, however, his colleague from across the border had a different opinion.
“Nothing’s going to stop the migration, nothing,” Juan Acereto Cervera, international affairs representative for Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, told reporters. “It’s because something is happening in other countries that make(s) these people … try to find the best country in the world. That is the United States. That’s the truth.”
Yet Leeser remains optimistic, even if he admits the new restriction is likely to be legally challenged. The mayor spoke with U.S. News in El Paso the day after he visited the White House and discussed Biden’s action, its possible impact and the situation in the border city. Questions and answers below have been edited for length and clarity.
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