The regional migration crisis and drug smuggling are expected to dominate discussions between US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday.
Biden arrived in Mexico City late Sunday after a political stop at the southern US border – his first since taking office.
He will meet Monday and Tuesday with Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau individually and also together at the so-called “Three Amigos” summit.
While trade and environmental issues were also on the table, Biden put irregular migration and dangerous drug trafficking front and center on his trip, his first to Mexico as president.
“Our problems at the border didn’t happen overnight,” Biden tweeted after his arrival.
“And it won’t be solved overnight. However, we can work together to fix this broken system. We can secure the border and fix the immigration process to be orderly, fair, safe, and humane.
On his way to Mexico, Biden stopped for a few hours in El Paso, Texas, a city in the middle of the border.
They met with US officials at the Bridge of the Americas crossing, watched demonstrations of the latest border enforcement technology, as well as customs sniffer dogs. He then got off his motorcycle to inspect the section of high fence that runs between El Paso and the twin cities of Juarez on the Mexican side.
“They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get them for them,” Biden told reporters after a visit to the customs post.
– Asylum Improvements –
Biden is under enormous political pressure in the face of illegal border crossings and asylum applications by people who make the dangerous journey from regional countries suffering from suffering, poverty or serious crime.
In addition to the crisis, there has been an increase in cross-border smuggling of the highly addictive and often deadly narcotic fentanyl.
Biden’s visit seeks to respond to Republican accusations that he is ignoring the situation.
But meeting Biden on Air Force One at the El Paso airport, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott delivered a letter calling the visit “$20 billion too little and two years too late.”
In meetings with Lopez Obrador and Trudeau, Biden will address the regional scope of the issue.
“It is gripping the globe, and regional challenges require regional solutions,” US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News, noting that migrants were on the move from as far as Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Biden on Thursday announced an expansion of powers to deport people who show up at the border without clearance.
At the same time, a legal and strictly enforced passage will be created for up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.