That’s not what Biden saw during the three-hour visit to the border: migrants gathering to cross

President Joe Biden got closer than he ever thought to hundreds of illegal migrants who had just set foot on American soil during his border trip on Sunday.

As his motorcade of the President sped through cordoned-off streets from one carefully staged visit to one facility to the next, he came within a few dozen feet of migrants lining up on the wrong side of the border fence.

They sent out a cheer as Biden’s convoy sped past overhead, though he almost certainly would not have noticed their presence.

It was an ironic twist on a whistlestop tour of border facilities in El Paso, where the president was kept well away from streets where he could see migrants at large in the city.

Migrants gather at the border fence around El Paso after crossing the Rio Grande into US territory. Here they wait for border officials to open a gate and begin processing

The episode reflects Republican criticism that the visit was little more than a photo op at the border.

And it comes amid claims El Paso – the epicenter of a wave of migrants last month – was cleaned up ahead of Biden’s visit.

In all, the President spent three hours on site near the border, meeting officials and charities helping migrants.

However, he has not been seen meeting migrants.

After visiting the busy port of entry on the Bridge of the Americas, which connects El Paso to the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, Biden was driven to his next stop at the El Paso County Migrant Services Center.

The convoy of police vehicles, SUVs and buses carrying personnel, Secret Service agents and journalists drove at high speed on roads closed to regular traffic.

The 21-minute drive took them past the well-fortified border, where Texas National Guard troops have been deployed to stem the flow of migrants.

But the vehicles were clearly visible to migrants on the other side of the border fence.

About 200 people had just made the crossing from Mexican territory across the muddy waters of the Rio Grande and gathered on US soil at a gate in the fence while waiting for the Border Patrol to let them through.

The president’s motorcade sped through cordoned-off roads during Biden’s visit on Sunday

The President spoke to Border Patrol officers as he strolled beside the border fence

Just a short distance from where President Biden took a walk along a “sanitized” section of the border fence in El Paso, migrants continued to cross the Rio Grande River into the United States

The number of people entering the United States around El Paso has fallen by 70 percent, according to the White House. But they could still be seen wading through the Rio Grande on Sunday

This is how the complicated business of processing at the border works.

The arrivals are taken behind the fence by border officials, who then have to process their asylum applications and decide who will be expelled immediately and who will be allowed to bring their case before a judge.

The shabbily dressed newcomers – mostly men and mostly without possessions – were not part of the Biden tour.

Instead, he met local officials at the airport and was then taken to the Bridge of the Americas for an up-close look at the border and a busy port of entry.

He watched border officials demonstrate how to search vehicles for drugs, money and other contraband.

A yellow lab was shown spotting fruit and meat in a vehicle before a chocolate lab retrieved what appeared to be a packet of drugs from another car.

Texas National Guard troops were stationed on the US side of the border to try to prevent crossings. That was the scene on Sunday

More than 100 migrants were seen along the border fence waiting to be let in

When he inspected the port of entry, there was a sign across the border that said “Bienvenido a Mexico.”

From there, they went past the fence and on to the El Paso County Migrant Services Center to learn about the services offered to newcomers.

He asked how many people passed through the center and was told it was around 300 to 500 a day, although sometimes it was as many as 1,000.

POTUS asked how many people do you let through?

Said it varies. One of the people said the average per day is around 300-500 migrants per day, but there are peaks of around 1000 per day at times.

Republicans denounced the visit as a carefully organized photo op, citing reports that the city of El Paso had been purged in advance.

During his tour, Biden was shown border agents at the El Paso port of entry on the Bridge of the Americas searching vehicles for drugs, money and other contraband

Biden was shown a fake battery used in an attempt to smuggle drugs into the United States

Biden looks at groceries being distributed to migrants while touring the El Paso County Migrant Services Support Center in El Paso

Biden was greeted at the airport by Greg Abbott, the state’s Republican governor, who handed him a letter denouncing his border policies.

“Your visit to our southern border with Mexico today is $20 billion short and two years late,” it said.

“Furthermore, your visit avoids the sites of mass illegal immigration and bypasses the thousands of angry Texas property owners whose lives have been shattered by your border policies.”

Border guard officials said it was impossible for the president to see the true picture during such a short visit, which lasted just over three hours.

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 18,000 agents, said: “You’re hardly going to grasp the scope of what’s happening.”

Gov. Abbott delivered the letter to Biden at the El Paso airport, prompting a chilly reception in Texas on Sunday as the president visited the border for the first time since taking office