On Sunday, President Joe Biden visited El Paso’s busiest port and met Border Patrol agents. He also spoke to workers at a federally-funded migrant services center. This was his first trip to the southern border since becoming president.

Biden replied, “They need lots of resources,” when asked by reporters Sunday afternoon what lessons he had learned during the trip. We’re going get it for them.

Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of the state, welcomed Biden to El Paso. Abbott has previously fought with the administration about immigration policies shortly after arriving in El Paso.

“The president created the chaos at the border. He should have been here.” He’s only two years old and $20 billion late,” Abbott told reporters.

Biden was given a letter by Abbott containing the Republican’s proposals for immigration policy. He labeled the visit as a photo-op. Biden spoke to reporters on Sunday, saying he had not yet read the letter.

For his part, the governor has been accused of using migrants to pawns for the facilitation of the drop-offs in thousands of people from the Northern border.

Biden was shown methods by Border Patrol officers in El Paso to detect smuggled goods. He also saw the physical wall that separates the city from Juarez (Mexico), according to reporters.

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, stated earlier Sunday that Biden had planned to meet with local business leaders. Jean-Pierre didn’t answer reporters specifically if Biden would talk to migrants during the trip.

The White House announced a new policy to allow humanitarian “parole,” to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua. It also aims to crack down on people who don’t follow legal channels.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, said that the goal was to encourage migrants to travel to the ports of entry rather than in between them.

Mayorkas tried to make a distinction on Sunday between a new regulation that was proposed by the Department of Justice last Wednesday and a similar Trump-era rule called a “transit banning”.

Mayorkas stated that the proposal was not a ban. It would, similar to Trump’s policy, require migrants to be refused safe harbor in another country first before they can apply for asylum in the United States.

Biden’s visit is taking place amid Republican criticism of his immigration policies. This comes in the wake of possible ending of Title 42, an enforcement tool used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to expel millions of people quickly.

Mayorkas stated that El Paso was a place that has seen “an acute challenge”. Mayorkas stated that 100 border agents have been sent to El Paso by the administration. They also plan to open a soft-sided facility for migrant processing there on Tuesday.