A high-level delegation will travel to Mexico this Wednesday and represent the President of the United States. Joe Bidento urgently negotiate with the Mexican President, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, new immigration measures that stop border crossings.
The delegation will be led by United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, accompanied by the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of US immigration policy. Alejandro Mayorkas; and the White House Security Advisor, Liz Sherwood Randall.
This trip was agreed upon by the two leaders last Thursday when Biden called López Obrador, who was concerned about the scale of the immigration crisis that has led to it The US will close several border ports for a few days.
The magnitude of the immigration crisis in the United States is reflected in the arrival of More than 2.2 million migrants have been registered so far this year 2023. According to the office, 2,240,000 people arrived at the border from January to November 2023; During the same period (January-November) in 2022, 2,326,711 migrants arrived and in 2021 there were 1,856,332. Mexico with more than 700,000 inhabitants who have arrived at the US border is the country with the highest number of migrants in official records, followed by Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia.
The State Department reported in a statement that the delegation led by Blinken would meet in person with López Obrador to deliver a speech “unprecedented irregular migration” in the region and call for the adoption of “measures” that will allow all border ports to reopen.
In addition, the head of US diplomacy will insist on compliance the Los Angeles Declaration, In it, twenty Latin American countries, including Mexico, have committed to offering migrants legal residency options so that not all of them go to the United States.
For its part, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was López Obrador who invited the US delegation to visit Mexico “to discuss human mobility.”
For the Foreign Ministry, the meeting represents an opportunity for cooperation “Regular control of migration flows” and insisting on the need to keep border crossings open to avoid impacts on trade.
In addition, López Obrador will emphasize the need to address the root causes of forced migration, such as poverty in Central America.
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) dIn November, 242,000 migrants were arrested at the border with Mexico and noted a historic increase in undocumented arrivals in the first days of December.
Last week, the United States closed the Eagle Pass (Texas) railroad crossing with Piedras Negras (Coahuila) and El Paso (Texas) with Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua) for five days.
The CBP justified the measure by saying it needed to deploy its personnel to these locations to process migrants, while Mexican employers reported millions of dollars in losses in bilateral trade.
In recent days, the United States has also closed vehicle and passenger crossings in Lukesville, Arizona, and San Ysidro, California.
At the same time, the Democratic administration is negotiating with Republicans over new restrictive measures at the border in an attempt to persuade conservatives to override their congressional veto on aid to Ukraine.
In this sense, the White House is examining the possibility of restoring the controversial situation Title 42a policy the former president used during the Covid-19 pandemic Donald Trump This allowed undocumented immigrants to be quickly deported without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum.
The application of this measure would have a direct impact on Mexico, as the majority of people will be repatriated to that country.
The Biden administration repealed Title 42 in May and replaced it with other measures aimed at limiting the arrival of people at the border and restricting access to asylum.
However, it has not had the desired impact as worldwide migration of people motivated by seeking better economic opportunities in the US and escaping various social and political crises in America and other places in the world is increasing.
On the eve of the US delegation’s visit, a caravan of more than 10,000 migrants left Mexico’s southern border for the US on Christmas Eve.