Alexander Martinez / Yussel Gonzalez*
Illegal migration is a hot potato for the White House, reflected in 2.3 million arrests and removals of immigrants in fiscal year 2022, five times more than in 2020.
The differences in approach between the United States and Mexico regarding the migration crisis surfaced during the meeting between presidents Joe Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, when the Mexican denounced his neighbor’s “disdain” for the region.
In front of Biden, in the presidential palace in Mexico City, López Obrador said that it is “the moment to end this oblivion, this abandonment, this disdain for Latin America and the Caribbean as opposed to the good-neighbor policy of that titan.” of freedom that was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt” (1933-1945).
“President Biden, you have the key to open and substantially improve relations between all the countries of the American continent,” exhorted the leftist president along with the highest-level officials of both governments.
But in his speech following that call, open to the press, Biden replied, staring at the Mexican, that his country has “spent billions of dollars” in the Western Hemisphere in the last 15 years alone, and must address various fronts around the world.
“Unfortunately our responsibility does not simply end in the Western Hemisphere,” Biden stressed across the table, noting that “the United States provides more foreign aid than any other country.”
López Obrador had announced earlier that he would ask Biden increase investment in the nations where the incessant migration of undocumented people to the United States originates.
Controversial request for more investment
“I know that it is a complex, controversial initiative and I am aware that its implementation involves numerous difficulties, but in my opinion there is no better way to guarantee the prosperous, peaceful and just future that our peoples deserve,” he said.
AMLO, as the Mexican president is known by his initials, even stated that there is no other leader other than Biden who “might carry out this company.”
“That (Biden) put his hand on his heart (…)”, the Venezuelan José David Meléndez, 25, expelled when the president visited neighboring El Paso, Texas on Sunday, cried in Ciudad Juárez.
Biden made a stop in that city before flying to Mexico for his first official visit, in an attempt to appease criticism for not having stepped on the convulsed 3,100 km border in two years of government.
Illegal migration is a hot potato for Biden, reflected in 2.3 million arrests and expulsions of migrants in fiscal year 2022, five times more than in 2020.
The ruler is not expected to announce new measures, following the program launched last Thursday that authorizes the monthly income of 30,000 Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians for two years. Said plan was agreed with Mexico and foresees maintaining the expulsions of people without papers.
“By the end of this summit we are not going to have a new agreement,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who accompanies Biden, told reporters on Monday.
However, “there is no reason to believe that there will not be a third step at some point,” Sullivan added, alluding to another measure that benefits Venezuelans.
Immigration restrictions cause that thousands remain stranded in Mexico, especially due to Title 42, an anti-covid measure that authorizes the express expulsion of undocumented immigrants.
The immigration issue has become a “political vulnerability” for Biden along with the flood of fentanyl by violent Mexican cartels, Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, told AFP.
Biden is expected to “push for more cooperation” on both fronts and AMLO is expected to demand something in return, possibly “less pressure” on trade issues, Shifter added.
Washington and Canada are in dispute with Mexico within the framework of the USMCA trade agreement over an energy reform that expanded state participation in the sector.
The “Plague” of Fentanyl
As expected, Biden also raised concerns regarding fentanyl, synthetic drug 50 times more potent than heroin, manufactured and trafficked by violent Mexican cartels, cwith precursors from China.
Biden denounced the “fentanyl plague, that has killed 100,000 Americans so far,” evoking the challenge of facing that threat together.
In 2021, both countries announced a shift in their anti-drug policy following 15 years of a predominantly military strategy. Since its launch in 2006, Mexico has accumulated some 340,000 murders and thousands of disappearances, without the cartels having weakened.
AMLO promotes a policy of “hugs, not bullets” that raises increase social investment in areas where cartels operate to attack the causes of drug trafficking. But it maintains operations like the one that led to the capture, last Thursday in Culiacán, of Ovidio Guzmán, son of Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States. That operation left 29 dead.
During the meeting, arms trafficking was also addressed, at a time when Mexico promotes two lawsuits once morest US manufacturers, as anticipated by a senior official US.
*AFP journalists.