AFPMexican President López Obrador arrives at meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 23:23
Mexico and America have agreed on closer cooperation to reduce migration on their shared border. They said this in a joint statement after conversations between US Secretary of State Blinken and his Mexican counterpart Bárcena.
What this closer collaboration will look like remains largely unclear.
Part of the agreements is “strengthening development cooperation for Venezuelan, Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants”, and tackling “the root causes of migration, such as inequality, poverty and violence”.
Mexican President López Obrador speaks of “important agreements”. He has promised to help ease migration pressure on the US.
The White House National Security Council says that “López Obrador has taken important new enforcement actions, but we have much more work to do together,” and that top White House officials will meet again with Mexican leaders in January Washington.
2.5 million migrants
According to experts, the US is facing a major migration crisis. The US government estimates that 2.5 million migrants illegally crossed the Mexico-US border this year alone. Last year there were 2.2 million.
This month, U.S. border authorities temporarily closed two major railroad crossings due to the high number of migrants crossing the border. Earlier today, the Mexican president said that the two countries have agreed to keep border crossings open from now on.
United States Correspondent Marieke de Vries:
“The immigration issue will likely become a major issue again in the coming election year. Today, Republican presidential candidate Trump launched a new campaign commercial in which he attacks the Biden administration and the lack of action at the southern border.
Republicans in Congress do not want to approve additional money for the war in Ukraine and Israel if money is not also made available for additional security at the border. They also call on the Biden administration to send more judges to the border to immediately assess whether a migrant can stay or not. So that they can be returned immediately.
But this time the criticism does not only come from Republicans: Democratic mayors in northern cities such as New York and Chicago are also calling on the president to take action, because they can no longer handle the number of migrants coming to their cities.”
This month, about 10,000 migrants were arrested every day at the U.S. southwestern border. Thousands of migrants are currently passing through Mexico on their way to the US. Most of them come from Central and South America. A significant number of them had to cross the perilous Darién Gap, the impenetrable jungle on the border between Colombia and Panama.
EPAThousands of migrants march through Mexico on their way to the United States
2023-12-28 22:23:10
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