Biden administration officials are pressing the Mexican government for help at the U.S.-Mexico border. United States officials and Mexican leaders met to strategize immigration solutions as migrant entries into the U.S. reach unprecedented numbers.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday, Dec. 27, in Mexico City.
The U.S. is asking Mexico to stem the tide of migrants flowing through the country from Guatemala, as another caravan comprised of thousands of migrants treks towards the U.S. southern border.
“We are committed to partnering with Mexico to address our shared challenges, including managing unprecedented irregular migration in the region, reopening key ports of entry, and combating illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs,” Blinken said in a post on X.
In exchange, President López Obrador said key border crossings will open back up after border officials shut down rail crossings in Texas and Arizona earlier this month. The closures disrupted commerce operations for both the U.S. and Mexico.
López Obrador also wants the U.S. Congress to provide more resources and offer aid to migrants in Latin America.
By Wednesday night, Mexican authorities had cleared out a border camp known to house about 1,500 migrants next to the Rio Grande, according to ABC News.
The talks come amid mounting bipartisan pressure for the Biden administration to act on border challenges.
In fiscal year 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) recorded a total of 2.4 million migrant apprehensions. In fiscal year 2020, that number was 646,822 under President Trump. In fiscal year 2015, the number was 337,117 under President Obama.
In December of 2023 alone, CBP officials reported seeing a daily average of 10,000 migrant crossings at the southern border.
Border states like Texas have taken matters into their own hands.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed S.B. 4 into law this month. Starting in March of 2024, the law allows Texas law enforcement to arrest migrants for illegal entry into the state from Mexico, and it will grant local judges the authority to order migrants to leave the country.
“The Border Patrol recently warned to take extreme caution when it learned that 10 IEDs were found just across the border,” Abbott said during the signing of the bill in Brownsville, Texas. “The FBI director warned that the border poses a threat to national security and the United Nations declared that the border between the United States and Mexico is the deadliest land crossing in the entire world. Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself.”
Since 2021, Texas law enforcement has arrested 10,000 migrants under Abbott’s “arrest and jail” operation. The operation requires landowners along the border to give the state the power to apprehend migrants who enter the U.S. through their properties.
Abbott has also sent more than 80,000 migrants to Democratic-led “sanctuary cities” such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Washington D.C., and New York City.
Wednesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order that requires Texas charter buses carrying migrants into the city to announce drop-offs 32 hours in advance.
“We cannot allow buses with people needing our help to arrive without warning at any hour of day and night,” Mayor Adams said. “This not only prevents us from providing assistance in orderly ways, it puts those who’ve already suffered so much in danger.”
Adams and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have called on the federal government to provide more resources for the hundreds of thousands of migrants that have shown up in their cities.
Texas Gov. Abbott has also called on the Biden administration to secure the U.S. southern border.
