WASHINGTON: A top-level US delegation will head to Mexico soon to discuss concerns on migration, the White House said Thursday, after the two countries’ leaders spoke on the phone and agreed urgent action was needed.
Presidents Joe Biden and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador discussed ongoing “efforts to manage migratory flows,” according to a White House readout, and also called for swift implementation of enforcement measures.
The leaders spoke as authorities in two US border states, Texas and Arizona, have in recent days taken unprecedented steps aimed at reducing illegal crossings, while accusing the federal government of inaction.
Biden asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood Randall to travel to Mexico “in the coming days,” the readout said.
US border police have in recent weeks reported approximately 10,000 crossings every day.
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The previous fiscal year, from October 2022 through September 2023, saw a record 2.4 million encounters by border patrol with migrants, including at both official ports of entry and elsewhere along the southern border.
On Tuesday, authorities closed two rail bridge crossings on the Mexico-Texas border – in Eagle Pass and El Paso – in an attempt to limit illegal entries on freight trains.
Vehicle crossings meanwhile have been suspended in Eagle Pass since the beginning of the month, as well as at an entry point in Arizona and California.
Biden and Lopez Obrador “agreed that additional enforcement actions are urgently needed so that key ports of entry can be reopened,” the White House readout said.
It added that the US team will “meet with President Lopez Obrador to discuss further actions that can be taken together to address current border challenges.”
The talks and trip come as the rival Republican Party pushes Biden’s Democrats for major changes on immigration policy in exchange for approving a package of emergency assistance for Ukraine and Israel.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that there has been a “dramatic increase” in migration across the border, largely from violence-ravaged Central American nations.
In their telephone call, Biden and Lopez Obrador “shared a similar concern about the increase in migratory flow here in recent weeks,” Kirby said.
The two presidents talked “in broad terms about what can be done inside Mexico to slow that process down,” he said.
Ideas include stepping up checkpoints on rail lines and highways and expanding the security presence on Mexico’s southern border, Kirby said.
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