The Biden administration is asking Mexico’s president for help in curbing the ongoing border crisis. In return, Mexico’s president has a few requests of his own.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City in December to discuss migration management.
The meeting took place just before U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced a record number of 302,000 migrant encounters at the U.S. southern border in December.
The Biden administration wants Mexican officials to help control the U.S.-Mexico border from their side, secure their border with Guatemala, and stem the flow of fentanyl and other drugs pouring into the United States.
Since Blinken and Mayorkas met with López Obrador, U.S. officials said Mexican efforts to slow migration at the U.S.-Mexico border have been successful, citing a drop in illegal border crossings in the new year.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection processed 2,500 migrants on Monday, Jan. 8, a sharp decline from the average 10,000 migrants per day in December.
In exchange for helping to decongest the border, López Obrador wants the U.S. to give $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The Mexican president also wants the U.S. to open dialogue with Cuba and suspend the blockade, remove all sanctions against Venezuela, and grant 10 million Hispanics in the U.S the right to remain and work in the country legally.
Some of these requests will need congressional approval.
In September, López Obrador suggested redirecting some of the funds the United States was sending to Ukraine for the war against Russia to support Latin American and Caribbean countries.
López Obrador said providing funding for the poor countries will help to address some of the root causes of migration.
Many migrants from Venezuela leave their home countries because of deteriorating economic and political conditions, PBS News reports.
Four months ago, López Obrador called for the U.S. to create a program “to remove blockades and stop harassing independent and free countries” and to develop “an integrated plan for cooperation so the Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Ecuadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans wouldn’t be forced to emigrate.”
López Obrador has pushed for legalizing migrants’ presence in the United States before. One year ago, he pressed President Biden during a trip to Mexico City to “regularize the migration situation” of millions of his fellow Mexicans living and working in the U.S.
“The Statue of Liberty should never, ever become a void and empty symbol,” López Obrador said.
