Biden slammed for not meeting with migrants during El Paso trip
CNN's Rosa Flores reported Monday that President Biden was being criticized by both sides of the aisle for not meeting with migrants during his trip to the border.
President Biden was criticized by both sides of the political aisle following his trip to El Paso, Texas, on Sunday for not meeting with any migrants during his first trip to the border since taking office.
CNN reporter Rosa Flores told CNN's Poppy Harlow that both Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Tex., and immigration activists raised the same question about Biden's visit.
"That’s why the president is being criticized by both sides because of what he didn’t see. So let me show you. This is one of the migrant camps here in downtown El Paso. And you know, the immigration advocates here in El Paso and Governor Greg Abbott usually don’t agree on much but they do raise the same question. If President Biden came here to El Paso to see the reality on the ground about the border and didn’t come here, what’s considered the epicenter of this crisis, did he leave with a clear understanding?" Flores said.
"CNN this Morning" played a clip of Abbott, who said Biden's trip was "nothing but for show."
CNN's Rosa Flores said President Biden was receiving criticism from both sides about his visit to the southern border. (Screenshot/CNN/CNNThisMorning)
Flores also spoke with Fernando García, an immigration and human rights activist, who said the president's 3-hour trip was just a photo-op.
He also told Flores that Biden was not exposed to the entire immigration crisis in El Paso because he did not meet or see any migrants.
"My colleague MJ Lee asked the White House about the president not interacting or meeting with any migrants and a senior administration official told her that it is because there were no migrants at the respite center at the time that the president visited, and that it was coincidental. But Poppy, I checked the migrant dashboard that the city of El Paso has. And at the time when the president was here, there were nearly 1,000 migrants who were in federal detention so if the president really wanted to see conditions, I kind of doubt that the President of the United States would have been denied access," Flores told Harlow.
Harlow noted Flores' surroundings and said that there were migrants sleeping on the streets of El Paso.
US President Joe Biden speaks with a member of the US Border Patrol as they walk along the US-Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Image)
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"If the president would have stopped by here, he would have seen there are hundreds of people. You see them here behind me. Hundreds of people living in the streets of America, I should highlight. This is a city in America, in the United States. And the top executive of this country came here, he did not come to see this," Flores said.
Republicans criticized the president's visit as a "photo op" and as being "long overdue."
President Joe Biden speaks about border security in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris stands at left. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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The White House responded to the criticism.
"President Biden visited the busiest port of entry in El Paso to get a firsthand look at enforcement operations. He also visited a Federally-funded migrant services center to meet with local officials working together with Federal officials to support and shelter migrants," the White House said in a statement.