US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andrew Manuel Lopez Obrador discussed the “unprecedented” flow of migrants across the two countries in a video call on Friday, a “puzzle” for the US government ahead of the US presidential election.
This telephone call, lasting more than 50 minutes, is indicative of the increasingly complex relations between the two neighboring countries in terms of trade, illegal and legal immigration and drug trafficking.
“A large part of the discussion was about immigration and our ongoing cooperation, the measures that need to be taken to reduce immigration at the border,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
The White House says Biden wants to put forward his desire to work with Obrador, in contrast to what he claims is the approach taken by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. “Last year we worked very hard to rebuild our bilateral relationship,” a senior US official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to Psaki, today’s “tone of the talks was very constructive”. “It was not a phone call in which President Biden threatened the Mexican president in any way,” he said.
The already complicated border situation has returned to the forefront recently, with Biden’s stated intention to put an end to the so-called “Chapter 42”, a regulation that has allowed the Covid-19 pandemic to expel migrants arrested at the border. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Even without the restrictions being lifted, the U.S. Border Patrol is arresting an average of 7,800 immigrants every day for the past three weeks, five times the 1,600 recorded in the 2014-19 pre-pandemic period.
Both parties agree that the problem is real. But the White House is talking about a failed immigration system, which is left to Congress to correct, while Republicans accuse Biden of failing to protect the country’s southern borders.
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