US delegation to meet with Mexican government for talks on surge of migrants at border
A top U.S. delegation is to meet with Mexico's president Wednesday in what many see as a bid to get Mexico to do more to stem a surge of migrants reaching the U.S. southwestern border.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said he is willing to help, but also says he wants to see progress in U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela, two of the top senders of migrants, and more development aid for the region.
Both sides face strong pressure to reach an agreement after past steps like limiting direct travel into Mexico or deporting some migrants failed to stop the influx. This month, as many as 10,000 migrants were arrested daily at the southwest U.S. border.
The U.S. has struggled to process thousands of migrants at the border, or house them once they reach northern cities. Mexican industries were stung last week when the U.S. briefly closed two vital Texas railway crossings, arguing border patrol agents had to be reassigned to deal with the surge.
Another non-rail border crossing remained closed in Lukeville, Arizona, and operations were partially suspended in San Diego and Nogales, Arizona. U.S. officials said those closures were done to reassign officials to help with processing migrants.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left open the possibility those crossing could be reopened if Mexico provides more help.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Secretary Blinken will discuss unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges, including actions to enable the reopening of key ports of entry across our shared border,바카라 게임 웹사이트 his office said in a statement prior to Wednesday's meeting.
Mexico already has assigned over 32,000 military troops and National Guard officers 바카라 게임 웹사이트 about 11% of its total forces 바카라 게임 웹사이트 to enforce immigration laws, and the National Guard now detains far more migrants than criminals.
But the shortcomings of that approach were on display Tuesday, when National Guard officers made no attempt to stop a caravan of about 6,000 migrants, many from Central America and Venezuela, when they walked through Mexico바카라 게임 웹사이트s main inland immigration inspection point in southern Chiapas state, near the Guatemala border.
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In the past, Mexico has let such caravans go through, trusting that they would tire themselves out walking along the highway. No caravan has ever walked the 1,000 miles to the U.S. border.
But wearing them out 바카라 게임 웹사이트 by obliging Venezuelans and others to hike through the jungle-clad Darien Gap, or corralling migrants off passenger buses in Mexico 바카라 게임 웹사이트 no longer works.
Many have simply found other ways. So many migrants have been hopping freight trains through Mexico that one of the country's two major railroad companies was forced to suspend trains in September because of safety concerns.
Actual police raids to pull migrants off railway cars 바카라 게임 웹사이트 the kind of action Mexico took a decade ago 바카라 게임 웹사이트 might be one thing the American delegation would like to see.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall will also be in on the meeting.
One thing the U.S. has already done is show that one country's problems on the border quickly become both countries' problems. The Texas railway closures put a chokehold on freight moving from Mexico to the U.S., as well as grain needed to feed Mexican livestock moving south.
López Obrador confirmed last week that U.S. officials want Mexico to do more to block migrants at its southern border with Guatemala, or make it more difficult to move across Mexico by train or in trucks or buses, a policy known as 바카라 게임 웹사이트contention.바카라 게임 웹사이트
But the president said that in exchange he wanted the United States to send more development aid to migrants바카라 게임 웹사이트 home countries, and to reduce or eliminate sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela.
바카라 게임 웹사이트We are going to help, as we always do,바카라 게임 웹사이트 López Obrador said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트Mexico is helping reach agreements with other countries, in this case Venezuela.바카라 게임 웹사이트
바카라 게임 웹사이트We also want something done about the (U.S.) differences with Cuba,바카라 게임 웹사이트 López Obrador said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트We have already proposed to President (Joe) Biden that a U.S.-Cuba bilateral dialogue be opened.바카라 게임 웹사이트
바카라 게임 웹사이트That is what we are going to discuss, it is not just contention,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said.
Mexico says it detected 680,000 migrants moving through the country in the first 11 months of 2023.
In May, Mexico agreed to take in migrants from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who had been turned away by the U.S. for not following rules that provided new legal pathways to asylum and other forms of migration.