Mexico’s president signals his country could take MORE than 30,000 migrants from the US each month, and the White House says its own offer is not “fixed”: Biden spends an hour in The Beast with López Obrador after breaking politics has announced that it will send cross-border commuters south
- Biden and Lopez Obrador drove together after Biden landed on Sunday
- “The numbers can be increased,” Lopez Obrador said
- The White House announced a plan for migrants from Venezuela and others to apply
- The monthly figure of 30,000 could also be expanded
The White House said on Monday that a plan to take in 30,000 additional legal migrants each month was not a “fixed number” – after Mexico’s president signaled his country could be ready to take in more frontier workers than the US previously did had announced to send back.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to reporters Monday after the Biden administration announced a plan to take in 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti who are seeking asylum online.
“We’re still in the early stages of implementation and will see how that goes and then decide where to take the next step. So I don’t think we have a fixed number in mind,” Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, told reporters from the president’s luxury hotel in Mexico City hours after Biden landed here.
He was asked about Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s own statement that Mexico might take in more than 30,000 migrants from the US than previously indicated.
President Joe Biden met Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Monday night. The two men shared a one-hour drive into town
“We don’t want to prejudge anything, but that’s part of what we’re going to talk about at the summit,” said López Obrador. “We support this type of action to give people options and alternatives,” he continued, adding that “the number could be increased.”
For his part, Sullivan said the numbers released by the White House last week were an “iterative process.”
The concept sees the US encouraging people from the countries to apply for asylum online, while those who show up at the southern border would be turned back.
Lopez Obrador said he was willing to take in more than 30,000 migrants a month to be sent back from north of the border.
Migrants stand behind barbed wire to prevent them from entering El Paso, Texas, as seen Tuesday from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The White House wants people to apply for asylum online
The US plans to send about 30,000 migrants back to Mexico each month, according to a plan announced before Biden’s trip
Long road: Biden and the Mexican president rode together for an hour in ‘The Beast’
He spoke about how the government started the program for those fleeing repression in Venezuela and then expanded it to Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians.
Biden landed Sunday at the new Felipe Angeles International Airport, a pet project of the president, despite having few flights and having problems with running water.
That subjected Biden, who is used to scurrying through downtown areas, to a nearly hour-long drive to his hotel. But he was joined by the President for the hour-long ride in The Beast, Biden’s presidential limousine.
That was Biden’s biggest piece of diplomacy to date. He has no public events until after 4 p.m. local time, although he should receive his daily presidential briefing.
Sullivan indicated that the limo ride was useful but would not divulge details.
“Yesterday he had the opportunity to drive back to the city from the airport with President Lopez Obrador, which gave them a chance to just have a one-on-one chat. How they see the world right now – what they think. I think they both got a lot out of it,” he said.