Biden announced new immigration program to crack down on border crossings 

President Joe Biden announced on Thursday a new plan to accept up to 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela in an effort to crack down on undocumented immigration. 

Any migrants from those countries who attempt to enter by circumventing U.S. laws will be expelled, the president said, speaking from the Roosevelt Room of the White House. 

“Do not just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally from there,” Biden said. “Starting today, if you don’t apply through the legal process you will not be eligible for this new parole program.”

The president said that the new measures announced on Thursday “won’t fix our entire immigration system but they can help us a good deal in better managing what is a difficult challenge.”

“Until Congress passes the funds, a comprehensive immigration plan to fix the system completely, my administration is going to work to make things at the border better using the tools that we have,” he added.

Biden also announced that he plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday before his trip to Mexico, where he will participate in the North American Leaders’ Summit. During his first visit to the border as president, Biden will be stopping at El Paso, Texas to meet with local officials and “assess border enforcement operations.”

Biden has been criticized for not visiting the border sooner, which has seen a record number of migrant crossings. In Fiscal Year 2022, which ended on September 30, more than 2.3 million undocumented migrants were intercepted. More than 617,250 migrants have taken place in Fiscal Year 2023, with an average of 8,585 encounters a day, according to data from Customs and Border Protection services.