Mexico’s president stated on Wednesday that the U.S. Congress ought to provide extra assist to Latin America as an alternative of placing up obstacles and “constructing partitions,” shortly earlier than he was scheduled to fulfill with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken a few surge in migration.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico additionally stated that subsequent 12 months’s presidential election in the US would convey migration to the highest of the agenda.
“The migration subject goes to accentuate,” he stated.
Mr. Blinken was headed to Mexico Metropolis on Wednesday at a time when border crossings had reached document numbers. There have been days this month when the U.S. Border Patrol encountered greater than 10,000 individuals on the southern border.
An enormous caravan that started its journey north on Sunday displays the large challenges in stemming the tide of migration. Native officers and information media studies in Mexico estimate that 6,000 to 10,000 individuals are making the journey.
The southern border has been a constant political vulnerability for President Biden, who has struggled to maintain the numbers down regardless of attempting to institute limits on asylum entry on the border and deporting migrants to Venezuela and Cuba.
Immigration has additionally grow to be central in discussions in Congress over help to Ukraine and Israel, as a result of Republicans have refused to approve the cash with out a new crackdown on the border.
Mr. López Obrador stated that Congress must be wanting into “tips on how to authorize sources for cooperation and assist for the poor peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean as an alternative of placing up obstacles, barbed wire fences on the river or fascinated with constructing partitions.”
“It’s extra environment friendly and extra humane to spend money on the event of the individuals,” he stated.
Wednesday’s assembly may also embrace Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland safety secretary, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White Home homeland safety adviser.
The migrant caravan has seized headlines partially due to its timing, simply forward of Mr. Blinken’s go to. Migrant caravans have grow to be a standard phenomenon and are often damaged up by the authorities nicely earlier than they attain the U.S. border.
The caravan, roughly 1,000 miles south of the U.S. border within the state of Chiapas, consists of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela and Haiti, amongst different international locations.
In November, a smaller caravan dispersed after officers took a whole bunch of migrants to native shelters.
Republicans have stepped up their assaults on Mr. Biden over the border numbers, a seamless subject for the president as he seeks re-election subsequent 12 months. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a regulation that authorizes regulation enforcement officers in his state to arrest migrants who cross with out authorization. (El Paso County challenged the measure in federal court docket final week.) The president has additionally confronted strain from mayors in Democratic cities over the rise in migrants arriving of their cities.
The rise in border crossings in latest weeks has pressured border officers to shut down railway crossings briefly in El Paso and Eagle Move, Texas, and to shut the port of entry in Lukeville, Ariz. Whereas the railway crossings are reopened, Biden administration officers plan to talk to Mexican officers concerning the port of entry closures, officers stated in an announcement.
Final week, Mr. López Obrador briefed reporters a few name with Mr. Biden during which they agreed that extra enforcement on the border was wanted.
“Now now we have a unprecedented state of affairs as a result of the variety of migrants passing by means of our nation with the aim of reaching the US has elevated,” he stated, including that Mexico was “going to assist, as we at all times do.”
Mr. López Obrador stated he shared with Mr. Biden an purpose of reinforcing containment measures in southern Mexico in order that migrants and asylum seekers don’t attain the border.
The opposite vital part, he stated, is to attempt to tackle the foundation causes of migration and assist clear up political disputes within the area.
U.S. Customs and Border Safety officers introduced on Friday that there have been greater than 190,000 apprehensions between ports of entry in November. U.S. officers stated they “eliminated or returned” greater than 400,000 individuals between Could and the top of November.
“We face a severe problem alongside the southwest border, and C.B.P. and our federal companions want extra sources from Congress — as outlined within the supplemental price range request — to boost border safety and America’s nationwide safety,” Troy Miller, the appearing chief of the border company, stated in an announcement on Friday.
