Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and other top American officials discussed the root causes of migration with Mexico’s president on Wednesday in hopes of figuring out a strategy to slow the surge in illegal crossings at the southern U.S. border.
President Biden dispatched the officials to Mexico City at a pivotal moment, as border crossings have hit record numbers and there is growing pressure on Mr. Biden to solve — or at least contain — a crisis that has proved to be a consistent political vulnerability.
The situation at the border is at the center of some of Mr. Biden’s biggest priorities going into 2024, particularly as Republicans in Congress demand a new crackdown on immigration in exchange for wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel.
“As we made clear in Mexico City today, 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,” Mr. Blinken said in a post on X.
The large number of migrants in recent weeks has forced border officials to temporarily shut down several railway crossings in Texas and to close the port of entry in Lukeville, Ariz. Those actions were intended to allow border officials to redeploy their personnel to respond to the situation.
But the decision disrupted business in the United States and Mexico. On Wednesday, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, said that “the importance of reopening the border crossings is a priority for us.”
Mexico has been a key player in U.S. efforts to stem the tide of migration as people from across the globe have passed through the country. On several occasions in recent weeks, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered more than 10,000 people a day trying to cross the border.
Shortly before Wednesday’s meeting, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said the U.S. Congress should offer more support to Latin America instead of putting up “barriers, barbed wire fences on the river or thinking about building walls.”
He added, “It is more efficient and more humane to invest in the development of the people.”
Mr. López Obrador also said next year’s presidential election in the United States would bring migration to the top of the agenda. Former President Donald J. Trump, whose plans to erect a border wall became emblematic of his harsh immigration policies, is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
“The migration issue is going to intensify,” Mr. López Obrador said.
Wednesday’s two-hour meeting also included Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the U.S. homeland security secretary, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White House homeland security adviser.
In the past, Mexico has taken steps to keep migrants from massing along the border. But earlier this month, the Mexican government suspended migrant deportations because of a lack of funding, according to an official from the government’s National Migration Institute who was not authorized to speak publicly.
During the Trump administration, Mexico agreed to take migrants under a policy known as “Remain in Mexico.” The migrants waited in border towns for months as they awaited court hearings in the United States, a key pillar of Mr. Trump’s crackdown on asylum seekers.
Later, during the institution of Title 42, a measure that allowed border agents to quickly expel asylum seekers, Mexico agreed to take in migrants from other countries.
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