US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Mexico’s president to discuss the influx of migrants reaching the southwestern US border.
A caravan that began its journey north on Sunday reflects the challenges in curbing migration. Migrant caravans have become a common phenomenon and are usually broken up by the authorities well before they reach the US border.
The latest caravan, roughly 1,000 miles south of the US border in the state of Chiapas, includes people from Honduras, Haiti and Cuba, among other countries. The Mexico office of the UN refugee agency said in a statement that the procession was starting to disperse and consisted of more than 2,000 people. It initially included approximately 5,000 people, the agency said.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he was willing to help, but he wanted to see progress in US relations with Cuba and Venezuela, two major sources of migrants, as well as increased development aid to the region.
On Monday, Mexico’s main goal was to get the US to reopen border crossings that had been closed due to a massive influx of migrants. Foreign relations secretary Alicia Bárcena said after the meeting:
“We spoke about the importance of the border and about the economic relationship … the importance of reopening the border crossings that is a priority for us.”
After restricting direct entry into Mexico or deporting some migrants failed to stem the flow of migrants, both sides of the negotiations are pushing for an agreement. As many as 10,000 migrants have been arrested daily at the US southwest border this month.
The US has struggled to process thousands of migrants at the border and house them in northern cities. Mexican industries were hit last week when the US briefly closed two crucial railway crossings in Texas, saying it needed to redeploy border agents to deal with a surge in migrants. Another non-rail border crossing remained closed in Lukeville, Arizona, and operations were partially suspended in San Diego and Nogales, Arizona.
Blinken said that if Mexico provides additional assistance, those crossings could be reopened. His office said:
“Secretary 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.”
Mexico said it detected 680,000 migrants travelling through the country in the first 11 months of 2023 and deployed more than 32,000 National Guard troops and officers – about 11% of the total force – to enforce immigration laws. The Mexican National Guard now apprehends far more migrants than criminals.
But the flaws in that approach became apparent Tuesday when National Guard officers failed to stop a caravan of about 6,000 migrants, many of them from Central America and Venezuela, from passing through Mexico’s main internal immigration checkpoint in the southern state of Chiapas near the Guatemalan border.
In the past, Mexico has let such caravans through, believing they would get tired walking along the highway.
Last week, López Obrador confirmed that US officials want Mexico to do more to block migrants at the southern border with Guatemala or make it harder to move through Mexico on trains, trucks and buses – a policy known as “detention.”
But the president has said that in exchange, he wants the US to reduce or lift sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela and send more development aid to migrant countries. López Obrador said noted:
“We are going to help, as we always do. Mexico is helping reach agreements with other countries, in this case Venezuela.”
Mexico has proposed to President Joe Biden to start a bilateral dialogue between the US and Cuba, López said.
López Obrador also said next year’s presidential election in the United States would bring migration to the top of the agenda. Former President Donald Trump, whose plans to erect a border wall became emblematic of his harsh immigration policies, is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He said:
“The migration issue is going to intensify.”
In May, Mexico agreed to accept migrants from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who have been turned away by the US for failing to comply with rules that provide new legal avenues for asylum and other forms of migration.
