Mexico, US reach agreements to ease soaring migration on border

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO CITY(AA) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Thursday that a series of agreements to ensure orderly and legal migration in the region has been reached in a meeting with US officials.

Lopez Obrador received a high-level US delegation Wednesday in Mexico City led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to ramp up efforts to disrupt criminal networks responsible for migrant smuggling and trafficking, and to continue to work to promote legal, rather than irregular, pathways for human mobility.

He said at a news conference that the meeting was carried out on "very good terms" and the US officials did not pressure Mexico to increase efforts to curb migration from the south.

The two sides also discussed the benefits of regularizing the status of long-time undocumented Hispanic migrants and DACA recipients, who are a vital part of the US economy and society.​​​​​​​

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, is a US policy that provides undocumented immigrants deportation protection and allows them to get a work permit.

Lopez Obrador said was US President Joe Biden requested the meeting because of the dramatic increase in reported migrant encounters throughout the year, with American authorities reporting up to 12,000 encounters per day at the border.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that more than 2.2 million migrants arrived at the shared border from January to November.

One agreement secured in the talks was to keep crossings open for trains and imports after the US government temporarily closed key railroad crossing entrances due to increased immigration at Eagle Pass and El Paso, both in the state of Texas.

"There is more and more (economic) movement on the border, on the bridges, and for that reason, we have to be attentive so that the crossing points are not closed, this agreement was reached, the crossing points for the railroad and the border bridges are already being opened, to normalize the situation," said Lopez Obrador.

In addition, both governments agreed to create a working group responsible for holding periodic meetings to address migration, with the next meeting scheduled for January in Washington.

The Mexican administration has broken records in capturing migrants transiting through Mexico.

As of October, there was a 31% increase in migrant captures compared to 2022 when 314,000 cases were reported, the highest number.

The 2023 figure is 123% higher than reported in 2021 and 402% than in 2020.