Mexican and U.S. officials have agreed to work more closely to tackle record migration at their shared border, the countries’ governments said in a joint statement on Thursday, a day after high-level talks to stem the record numbers.
Following US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Mexico, the countries said they would seek to strengthen sponsorship initiatives for Venezuelan, Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Haitian migrants and seek to address the root causes of migration.
The delegations, due to reconvene in Washington next month, also discussed enacting the status of US Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients — so-called Dreamers who were brought to the country illegally as children — and long-term undocumented Hispanic migrants living in the United States states.
The talks came after the U.S. temporarily closed some border crossings to shift enforcement agents, prompting a slowdown in trade and criticism from Republicans of the Biden administration’s border policies. Immigration and borders are expected to be major issues in the 2024 US election, where President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is running for a second term.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said earlier Thursday that both sides had agreed to keep border crossings open after the temporary closure.
Lopez Obrador announced in a morning news conference, ‘An agreement has been reached, and railway crossings and border bridges are already opening to restore normalcy.’
Lopez Obrador said Wednesday’s meetings with the U.S. delegation were “straightforward” and praised the Biden administration’s relations with Mexico.
‘FAITH IN GOD’
More than half a million migrants have crossed the dangerous Darien Gap jungle linking South America to Central America this year – double last year’s record – with many many fleeing crime, poverty, and conflict, seeking better opportunities in the United States of America.
The latest in a series of caravans of migrants and asylum-seekers, many with young children, is making its way slowly through southern Mexico, heading for the US border. Lopez Obrador estimated the caravan numbered about 1,500 people, but some activists and local media put the number at 7,000.
“We have to have faith in God,” said Honduran migrant Marvin Mejias as he traveled with his son, who underwent leg surgery. Mejias said he hoped the governments had reached an agreement that would help him enter the U.S. and be able to work there.
Lopez Obrador said the issue of fentanyl, a powerful and deadly opioid smuggled into the US by Mexican cartels, was “barely discussed” at Wednesday’s meeting.
The United States has urged Mexico to do more to combat the fentanyl trade, while Mexico is pushing for tighter US controls to prevent American firearms from reaching powerful cartels.