Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena on Monday emphasised the importance of Mexican migrant workers to the US economy and renewed her call on Washington to regularise their legal status.
At a press conference, Bárcena said Mexicans working in the US contribute more than $324 billion annually to the economy in important sectors such as agriculture, services and construction.
“The regularisation of Mexicans is not unprecedented. In 1986, 3 million Mexicans were regularised.”
Mexico is asking Washington to make a “similar and fair gesture” to legalise illegal Mexicans who have worked there for more than five years, including half a million young people protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act.
At the end of 2023, the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border hit a record high. In December 2023, US Customs and Border Protection recorded nearly 250,000 migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border, the highest number on record for any month.
To stop mass emigration, the United States needs to approve a budget of $20 billion a year to promote development in Latin America and the Caribbean, Barcena said, calling on Washington to lift sanctions against Venezuela and the trade embargo against Cuba.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has already proposed these measures to his US counterpart Joe Biden, along with others such as controlling the flow of US arms to Mexico, the minister said.
According to the Mexican government, there are 37.3 million Mexicans living in the US, of which about 5.3 million are undocumented.
