The presidents of the United States and Mexico agree that controls on the two countries' common border must be strengthened. Joe Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador held a telephone conversation this Thursday to address the migration crisis in the region. Just a few days ago, the Mexican president acknowledged an unusual increase in illegal crossings at this border between November and December, estimated at 31%, according to US Border Patrol (CBP). The issue has become a hot topic in the northern country, which decided late last month to close border crossings due to the huge influx of people arriving. The two heads of the executive branch have also said that a US delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Mexico in the coming days to determine new measures to address the crisis.
The phone call between Biden and López Obrador took place this Thursday morning at the initiative of the American president, as confirmed by the White House and the Mexican president. “Let’s see what he has to say. He has asked to speak to me and he would be happy to do so,” the president said in his daily morning conference. The conversation took place in the context of the umpteenth turning point in the migration crisis at the border with Mexico, where up to 10,000 daily apprehensions of irregular migrants were registered this week.
Both leaders agreed on the need for greater control in the 3,200 kilometers that separate the two neighbors. To work on this cooperation, Washington reported that in addition to Blinken, several senior US officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and US National Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, will be traveling to Mexico in the next few years. Days to meet López Obrador. This was told to journalists by White House national security spokesman John Kirby, who explained that during Thursday's high-level conversation, Biden focused on asking Mexico for greater efforts in dealing with the crisis.
The last time the two leaders met last month in California was at a summit of Asia-Pacific countries. The two addressed fentanyl threats and discussed ways to expand security cooperation.
Mexico faces a double immigration problem. On the one hand, it is the country through which thousands of migrants travel every month to reach the United States. On the other hand, it is faced with the massive exodus of Mexicans who have joined the caravans to reach the north illegally. López Obrador's government estimates that of the 307,000 people held at the border by the end of the year, nearly 75,000 will be from Mexico.
These unprecedented numbers have led to the closure of border crossings. On November 27, the United States government decided to close the passage of people and vehicles from Mexico on the bridge that connects Piedras Negras in Coahuila to Eagle Pass in Texas. CBP said it made this decision due to the increase in irregular entries. For the same reason, on December 4, they closed the crossing from Sonoyta, Sonora, to Lukeville, Arizona. And on December 9, the pedestrian crossing from El Chaparral in Tijuana, Baja California, to San Ysidro, California, one of the busiest borders in the world, was closed.
Trade relations have been a point of contention for the United States and Mexico, and Biden and Obrador have had a strained relationship at times. The increase in migration flows is taking its toll on some sectors of the US economy. Dozens of agricultural companies in the country called on Wednesday for the reopening of two rail crossings on the border to restore trade arteries clogged by the escalation of border crossings in recent weeks. The measure was in response to the Mexican immigration authority's decision to suspend expulsions of migrants until the end of the year due to a lack of funds.
In his nearly three years in office, the immigration issue has been a thorn in the side of Biden, who is seeking re-election in the November 2024 election. He came with the intention of “humanizing” border management and was faced with a crisis exacerbated by the impact of the end of the pandemic and the lack of stability in some of the migrant countries. His political opponents have given him moderation on this issue, accusing him of inaction and “open borders.”
From Mayorkas to Biden to Republicans, everyone in Washington agrees on the diagnosis that the US immigration system is “broken” because of a lack of updating legislation, the last of which dates back to the late 1980s, and because The US Congress is mired in political quarrels.
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