In view of the tense situation on the border with Mexico, US President Joe Biden has announced new measures to curb illegal immigration.

"Don't just show up at the border," Biden warned potential illegal migrants at the White House unveiling of the new strategy on Thursday.

"Stay where you are and seek legal entry from there."

Sofia Dreisbach

North American political correspondent based in Washington.

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Anyone who enters the United States illegally by land should be consistently deported in the future.

Instead, America wants to take in 30,000 migrants a month for two years from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, who will be given work permits as long as they entered the country legally.

To do so, they must first pass a background check and have a financial sponsor in the United States.

"This new process is orderly," Biden said.

He is "safe and humane" and works.

Mexico welcomes Biden's plans

So far, such a special regulation has only existed for Venezuelans;

24,000 of them were allowed to enter America under the conditions mentioned.

The number of Venezuelans who crossed the border illegally fell from 1,100 to 250 a day, Biden said on Thursday.

In return for the new regulation, 30,000 illegal immigrants from the four countries mentioned are to be deported to Mexico every month.

Mexico's foreign ministry responded with "joy" to Biden's plans.

They correspond to Mexico's long-voiced demand for "orderly, safe, legal and humane" immigration.

President Biden travels to the southern border in El Paso on Sunday for the first time during his term in office.

Hundreds of stranded migrants have been waiting there for weeks;

because of the lack of accommodation, some of them have to sleep on the streets.

The city's mayor declared a state of emergency in December because of the situation.

In the past few weeks, a particularly large number of migrants had made their way to the southern border because the so-called Title 42 regulation was to fall at the end of December.

The deportation rule allows border officials to turn migrants away without a procedure on grounds of public health and has been in effect since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. However, the Supreme Court has now put the repeal on hold for the time being.

The court plans to hear arguments in February in the case that 19 Republican-governed states filed as an urgent motion in December.

The states warned of an “imminent catastrophe” should the regulation fall.

The number of migrants trying to cross the southern border into the United States is at an all-time high.

In the first nine months of last year, authorities apprehended around 2.2 million migrants, many of whom had previously failed to enter the country.

In November alone, another 230,000 illegal migrants were arrested.

Referring to Donald Trump's term in office, the Biden government speaks of a "broken asylum system" that needs to be repaired.

In return, the Republicans accuse the Democrats of a failed border policy.

Biden travels on from the southern border to Mexico, where he also wants to discuss migration at the North America summit.