par Brian Snyder
EAGLE PASS, Texas, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk waded into the U.S. immigration debate on Thursday, traveling to the Texas-Mexico border to meet with local politicians and law enforcement and get what he called an “unfiltered” view of the situation.
Mr. Musk’s visit comes as thousands of migrants have ventured into northern Mexico in recent days aboard freight trains and buses, then crossed the U.S. border in Texas, Arizona and California, in part of an increase in arrivals of asylum seekers in the United States.
The sharp increase, particularly around San Diego, California, and the Texas border cities of El Paso and Eagle Pass, follows a lull in unauthorized border crossings following a new policy asylum imposed by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to discourage this type of activity.
Mr. Musk visited Eagle Pass, where crowds of migrants have been fording the Rio Grande near a railroad bridge for several days, undeterred by the barbed wire placed along the river’s banks by the Guard. National of Texas.
Wearing a black T-shirt, black cowboy hat and aviator-style sunglasses, Mr. Musk advocated a two-pronged approach to overhauling U.S. immigration laws in a selfie video posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which he purchased last April.
He called for “expedited legal approval” as part of a “significantly expanded legal immigration system” that welcomes “hardworking and honest” migrants, while barring entry to those who “break the law.”
“We want to do both things: facilitate legal immigration and stop a flow of people of such magnitude that it causes the collapse of social services,” Mr. Musk said.
Mr. Musk, originally from South Africa, recalled his own status as an “immigrant to the United States” and said he was “extremely supportive of immigration”
Chief executive of Tesla TSLA.O and SpaceX, Musk has become increasingly involved in American politics.
In May, he hosted the launch of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Republican presidential campaign on Twitter, which caused the service to crash. He said earlier this month that he had refused a request from Ukraine to use its Starlink satellite network to help defend against Russia and met last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged him to strike a balance between protecting free speech and combating hate speech on X.
In the 4-minute video clip, it features U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican whose district stretches more than 800 miles from the border, who welcomed Musk and said people living on along the Texas border ‘really feel abandoned’
Musk has more than a little interest in the Texas economy. Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory is located in Austin, and Space X operates a major test and launch center on the Gulf Coast in Boca Chica, near Brownsville.
2023-09-29 01:01:58
#Elon #Musk #wades #immigration #debate #TexasMexico #border
