Speaking with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has discussed the increasing turmoil on their shared border caused by the migratory problem.
The high-level gathering occurred as the White House is under increasing pressure to stop the flood of immigrants entering the US.
Up to 10,000 individuals were crossing the southern border each day, according to US officials last week.
According to Mr. Lopez Obrador, fewer migrants will be allowed to traverse Mexico into the United States.
As Mr. Blinken departed, the president of Mexico gave a favourable evaluation of the discussions that took place in Mexico City, although he did not provide many specifics.
In remarks made prior to the meeting, he had urged more efforts to deal with the underlying reasons of migration and issued a warning that it would play a significant role in the US election of 2024.
When he returns to power in 2019, it is expected that former president Donald Trump would carry out a severe crackdown on undocumented immigrants, continuing his increasingly hard-line posture on the border.
Mr. López Obrador told reporters, “We have to be careful because campaigners use this issue as a rallying cry.” “It is more efficient and more humane to invest in the development of the people and that is what we have always proposed.”
The meeting on Wednesday was called after President Joe Biden and Mr. López Obrador agreed over the phone last week that immediate action was required to handle border security.
Following the call, Mr. López Obrador informed reporters that Mexico was “going to help, as we always do” to address the migrant influx into the United States.
The meeting in Mexico City, which also included Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, was scheduled to focus on “unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways” that each nation can address border security challenges, according to a statement released by the state department earlier this week.
However, it coincides with a record number of Mexican migrants entering the US. In both the fiscal years 2022 and 2023, there were more than two million persons detained along the southern border of the United States.
In a statement released on Friday, US Customs and Border Protection [CBP] authorities stated that over 190,000 people were apprehended in November alone.
With the Republican-controlled House of Representatives unwilling to provide fresh military financing to defend Ukraine without a pledge to fortify the border, the figures have turned into a political liability for Mr. Biden.
Troy Miller, acting director of US Customs and Border Patrol, stated on Friday that “we are facing a serious challenge along the southwest border and CBP and our federal partners need more resources from Congress – as outlined in the supplemental budget request – to enhance border security and America’s national security,”
Prior to the gathering, the focus of US media shifted to a caravan of roughly 7,000 migrants traveling from southern Mexico into the US.
On Christmas Eve, the caravan departed from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, which is close to the nation’s southern border with Guatemala.
“Exodus from poverty” was written on a banner carried by its leaders.
The caravan is currently around 1,000 miles south of the US border and is purportedly composed of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Haiti, and other nations.
