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Sunday menudo and a presidential motorcade: El Pasoans brace for Biden’s visit

 President Biden boards Air Force One on his way to El Paso, Texas on January 8, 2023.
Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press
President Biden boards Air Force One on his way to El Paso, Texas on January 8, 2023.

As Texas Republicans and immigration activists had plenty of criticism for President Biden ahead of his first visit to the border, El Pasoan Patty Apodaca was more intent on what was directly in front of her: a packed parking lot at one of the city’s famous menudo restaurants.

After finally finding a spot at the Good Luck Café Sunday morning, Apodaca shrugged and said she wasn’t that impressed with Biden’s visit, which comes weeks after El Paso saw tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants cross into the border city, straining local and federal resources.

“I think all the presidents are the same and they only do things for themselves,” she said in Spanish. “That’s what I think.”

After the cameras are gone and the streets are free from the congestion caused by the president’s motorcade, Apodaca said El Paso will continue as it always has. Migrants will keep coming, but that won’t be anything new to the Sun City.

“[Biden] shouldn’t have promised so much -- that’s why the situation is the way it is,” she said. “But everything will stay the same” afterward.

Several presidents have made stops in El Paso for campaign speeches or to stump for their allies, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Barak Obama. But Biden’s visit marks the second consecutive time a president will be in El Paso amid criticism and controversy. Former President Trump visited El Paso in August 2019 after a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in a racially motivated attack.

But El Pasoan Mario Soto said Biden’s visit shouldn’t politicize El Paso.

“I don’t see why it would put us in a bad light. We’re at the center of immigration and that’s just the way it is,” he said during a shopping trip at an east side mall on Sunday. “I feel like it’s the duty of the president whenever a big issue happens. It’s not anything heroic. I think it’s just something that they should do. You’re the president -- you should go to the place where big things are happening.”

Others see the visit in a more positive light. Gale Rollins, who moved to El Paso when her husband Greg was in the U.S. Army, said she thinks Biden’s visit falls in line with what she called the actions of a president who is taking care of business.

“I am really glad he’s coming. I think he’s doing a great job, and I am not frightened anymore about what’s going on in the world. He has everything under control,” she said, adding that she felt the country was more divided under Trump.

But she said Biden should have paid a visit sooner.

“I think he should have been here sooner because I don’t think that people should be sleeping on the street,” she said, referring to the hundreds of migrants who were forced to sleep on sidewalks in recent weeks after shelters and federal holding facilities were beyond capacity.

Like Soto, Greg Rollins said immigration will always be an issue in El Paso and Biden’s visit was a byproduct of that. But he didn’t criticize the timing of the visit.

“I think he’s just doing his job, and I don’t think he would necessarily come if there wasn’t a crisis. But I think it’s a good thing that he’s coming, just to bring more attention to what’s going on,” he said. “I don’t think it would have really made a difference or anything would have changed had he been here four weeks ago versus Sunday.”

Biden will be in El Paso for about three hours Sunday. His visit will include a tour of the Bridge of the Americas, a port that connects the city to Ciudad Juarez and is a major artery in the region’s trade network. He will also visit with shelter directors and will be joined by U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso and Vicente González, D-McAllen.

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Got a tip? Email Julián Aguilar at jaguilar@kera.org.You can follow Julián on Twitter @nachoaguilar.

Copyright 2023 KERA. To see more, visit KERA.

Julián Aguilar | The Texas Newsroom