Two of President Joe Biden’s top officials are looking to increase the pressure on Mexico as the U.S. southern border becomes overwhelmed with record-high migrant crossings.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is planning to travel to Mexico on Wednesday alongside Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall for a meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The meeting will address the ongoing migrant crisis that the U.S. is facing. In November, the number of migrant encounters recorded by federal authorities hit its highest ever for that same month compared to previous years. (RELATED: Karine Jean-Pierre Calls Border Crisis ‘Not Unusual’ As Record Numbers Of Migrants Cross Into US)
The meeting aims to address the ways the two countries can work together to address the growing crisis, “including actions to enable the reopening of key ports of entry across our shared border,” a previous press release stated.
Homeland security officials have previously discussed actions they would like Mexico to take to help the U.S. handle its crisis, which are expected to be part of their requests during the meeting with the country’s president, CNN reported. Such asks include having better control over the railways that are used by migrants to head north and providing incentives, such as visas, in an effort to discourage migrants from heading to the border.
Just a few days out from an election year, Biden has faced growing pressure regarding his handling of the migrant crisis. Amid a declining overall approval rating, Americans also disapprove of how the president is handling the crisis at the border. Sixty-nine percent of Americans do not approve of how Biden has handled immigration, according to a Monmouth University poll. Biden’s own party is split on how he has handled immigration with 50 percent approving and 47 percent disapproving, the poll shows.
US Customs and Border Protection officers take an immigrant child from her mother after they crossed the border from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas on December 22, 2023. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Ahead of Blinken’s visit to Mexico, López Obrador said he would give the U.S. assistance with its migration crisis if the country is open to having conversations with the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes. If the U.S. wants to see Mexico block the flow of migrants to the country, then the Biden administration must be willing to eliminate or lower sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela or send more aid to migrants’ countries, Obrador said.
Biden himself spoke with López Obrador ahead of his officials’ visit to the country to discuss the illegal immigrants flowing through the U.S. southern border.
“We are going to help, as we always do,” López Obrador previously said. “Mexico is helping reach agreements with other countries, in this case Venezuela.”