Migrants cross the Rio Grande river to achieve the US from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.
Christian Chavez/AP
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Christian Chavez/AP
Migrants cross the Rio Grande river to achieve the US from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.
Christian Chavez/AP
MEXICO CITY — A prime U.S. delegation met with Mexico’s president Wednesday in what many noticed as an try to have Mexico do extra to restrict a surge of migrants reaching the U.S. southwestern border.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has stated he’s keen to assist, however he desires to see progress in U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela, two of the prime sources of migrants, together with extra growth assist for the area.
However Mexico’s prime precedence seemed to be getting the US to reopen border crossings that have been closed due to the migrant surge.
“We spoke concerning the significance of the border, and concerning the financial relationship … the significance of reopening the border crossings, that could be a precedence for us,” Overseas Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena stated after the assembly.
Each side within the talks face strain to achieve an settlement after previous steps like limiting direct journey into Mexico or deporting some migrants didn’t cease the inflow. This month, as many as 10,000 migrants have been arrested every day on the southwest U.S. border.
The U.S. has struggled to course of 1000’s of migrants on the border, and home them as soon as they attain northern cities. And Mexican industries have been stung final week when the U.S. briefly closed two important Texas railway crossings, arguing that border patrol brokers needed to be reassigned to take care of the surge. One other non-rail border crossing remained closed in Lukeville, Arizona, and operations have been partially suspended in San Diego and Nogales, Arizona.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left open the chance that these crossings could possibly be reopened if Mexico supplies extra assist.
“Secretary Blinken will talk about unprecedented irregular migration within the Western Hemisphere and establish methods Mexico and the US will handle border safety challenges, together with actions to allow the reopening of key ports of entry throughout our shared border,” his workplace stated.
Mexico says it detected 680,000 migrants transferring by means of the nation within the first 11 months of 2023.
Mexico has assigned over 32,000 army troops and Nationwide Guard officers — about 11% of its complete forces — to implement immigration legal guidelines, and the Nationwide Guard now detains much more migrants than criminals.
However the shortcomings of that strategy have been on show Tuesday, when Nationwide Guard officers made no try to cease a caravan of about 6,000 migrants, many from Central America and Venezuela, from strolling by means of Mexico’s predominant inland immigration inspection level in southern Chiapas state close to the Guatemala border.
Prior to now, Mexico has let such caravans undergo, trusting that they might tire themselves out strolling alongside the freeway.
By Wednesday, Lazara Padrón Molina, 46, from Cuba was sick and exhausted. The caravan set out Dec. 24 from the town of Tapachula and had walked about 45 miles (75 kilometers) by means of the warmth to Escuintla in southern Chiapas state.
“The route is just too lengthy to proceed strolling. Why do not they only give us paperwork in order that we might get a bus or a taxi?” Padrón Molina stated. “Take a look at my ft,” she stated, displaying blisters. “I am unable to go on anymore.”
However sporting the migrants out — by obliging Venezuelans and others to hike by means of the jungle-clad Darien Hole, or corralling migrants off passenger buses in Mexico — not seems to work.
So many migrants have been hopping freight trains by means of Mexico that one of many nation’s two main railroad firms suspended trains in September due to security issues. Police raids to drag migrants off railway automobiles — the sort of motion Mexico took a decade in the past — could be one factor the American delegation want to see.
A couple of blocks from Mexico Metropolis’s predominant plaza — the place Blinken will meet with López Obrador on the Nationwide Palace — migrants stayed at an improvised shelter at a church, gathering power earlier than persevering with north.
David Peña, his two daughters and his pregnant spouse, Maryeris Zerpa, hoped to achieve the US earlier than the kid is born in a couple of month.
“The purpose is to cross over so the child will probably be born there,” Peña stated. However with no asylum appointment, he had no thought how the household will enter.
U.S. Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and homeland safety adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall are also attending the assembly.
The U.S. has proven that one nation’s issues on the border shortly grow to be each international locations’ issues. The Texas railway closures put a chokehold on freight transferring from Mexico to the U.S., in addition to grain wanted to feed Mexican livestock transferring south.
López Obrador confirmed final week that U.S. officers need Mexico to do extra to dam migrants at its southern border with Guatemala, or make it harder to maneuver throughout Mexico by prepare or in vehicles or buses, a coverage often called “rivalry.”
However the president stated that in alternate he needed the US to ship extra growth assist to migrants’ house international locations, and to cut back or remove sanctions in opposition to Cuba and Venezuela.
“We’re going to assist, as we at all times do,” López Obrador stated. “Mexico helps attain agreements with different international locations, on this case Venezuela.” He stated Mexico has proposed to President Joe Biden {that a} U.S.-Cuba bilateral dialogue be opened.
In Could, Mexico agreed to soak up migrants from international locations comparable to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who had been turned away by the U.S. for not following guidelines that supplied new authorized pathways to asylum and different types of migration.
