Repression, economic turmoil, and gang violence is driving the crisis at the US border, an expert says

• President Joe Biden visited the US-Mexican border on Sunday for the first time since taking office.
• It came amid a surge in the number of undocumented migrants seeking to enter the US.

President Joe Biden's first visit as president to the US-Mexican border Sunday came amid an unprecedented surge in the number of undocumented migrants seeking to enter the US.

Biden is facing fierce criticism from Republicans who are calling for President Donald Trump's harsh migration policies to be reinstated, as well as from members of his own party urging reform of the US immigration system.

The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives is gearing up to make migration one of its core issues as the 2024 presidential election looms.

According to US government figures, 2 million migrants were detained at the US southern border between September 2021 and September 2022.

It's a steep increase on past years: 1.67 million in 2020-2021, and the 400,000 the year before that, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged. The figures include migrants attempting to re-enter the US after being expelled.

Title 42, a law imposed by Trump in the pandemic, allowed authorities to more easily expel migrants on public-health grounds.

Biden attracted criticism from some in his party when he kept Title 42 in place. Last Thursday he went a step further and announced plans to expand it to apply to those from a larger list of neighboring countries.

Experts say that behind the surge is a unique geopolitical storm, of escalating violence, poverty and instability in countries near the US.

Ariel Ruiz, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said that the factors driving migration are "intersecting and compounding," and driving the surge from Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

In Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, increased political repression and inflation related to the COVID-19 pandemic are key factors driving the surge, while in Haiti, he said, a surge in gang violence was the main driver.

He said that the US migration system has failed to adapt to the shifting trends in those attempting to enter the country, as it is mainly designed to deal with Mexicans seeking entry to the US.

Under US law, migrants from countries seen as dangerous and unstable, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, must have their cases heard, unlike with Mexico, where the US has a deal to quickly deport its citizens back over the border.

"Until last week's announcement by the President Biden, Cubans and Nicaraguans were significantly more likely to be allowed into the United States to continue their removal proceedings and seek asylum options, as opposed to the majority of Mexican and Northern Central American migrants.

"This is in part of result of the strained relations between the United States and Cuba and Nicaragua that complicate the return of migrants," he said.

But overall, the power of changes like this pale compared to the huge draw that is the US economy, he said.

The wealth available in the US, the relative poverty of other nearby nations, and limited options for legal migration, mean that high undocumented migration is likely to continue, Ruiz concluded.