Migration is, along with security and trade, a discussion that underpins the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States and, at the same time, the challenge that most determines the balance of regional policy in Latin America. This week, Andrés Manuel López Obrador received the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, to address an emergency that has worsened in recent months. While the Mexican president and senior officials of Joe Biden's Administration analyzed the situation, a new caravan of thousands of people advanced towards the northern border, where one of the darkest years is about to close: at the beginning of December the arrests They were close to 10,000 each week and the number of deaths threatens to exceed the 560 of the previous year.
Since the beginning of Biden's mandate, at least a dozen meetings of these characteristics have been held. They all end up with a fundamental harmony but with disagreements about the formulas to confront the phenomenon. On this occasion, the meeting was requested by the White House, which periodically pressures Mexico to act as a retaining wall on the southern border between the State of Chiapas and Guatemala. That is the funnel where tens of thousands of migrants are concentrated, waiting to leave for the north, mostly from Central America, Venezuela, Haiti or Cuba and with a history of misery and violence behind them.
One of the demands of the American delegation was precisely to divert part of the migrants to that region, in addition to greater control of the railroads and some incentives such as visas and work permits in transit countries. The Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, highlighted the friendly tone of the meeting and celebrated the creation of a team that will work together with other Central American countries. However, Mexico's claim has always been the same: Washington must increase the resources allocated to the crisis. And this is where a problem that can only have a regional solution intersects with the domestic disputes of the United States.
Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021 with the purpose of “humanizing” migration after the heavy hand imposed by Donald Trump. However, with the 2024 election campaign at hand, the Democratic president has toughened his speech. Added to this is the political use of the emergency made by the Republican Party, whose group intends to get the Government to limit the granting of asylum to 5,000 people per day in exchange for supporting aid to Ukraine. Any agreement will have to wait: last week, the Senate went on vacation without reaching a consensus. Whatever happens, it will always be too late to face this humanitarian emergency.
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