Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Mexico’s new administration on Wednesday for working with the U.S. to reduce the flow of migrants through Mexico to the U.S.
“The incoming administration has been great,” Pompeo said on Fox News of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s new government.
Pompeo said Lopez Obrador has only been in power for less than two weeks, but has already taken steps to control Mexico’s southern border. That’s where Central American migrants have crossed freely for years as they head to the southern U.S. border.
“We have to control that border that is ours, and they have to control that border that is theirs,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo met with the new administration days ago, and has said in public the new president is willing to work with the U.S. more closely on border security matters.
Just this week, Lopez Obrador said Mexico would spend $30 billion over the next five years on Central American development in a bid to mitigate the economic circumstances that cause to many to flee to the U.S.
Pompeo said he agrees with President Trump’s push for more money to build a border wall, and said the U.S. needs to have more control over who enters the country.
“We have to have the capacity to control entry into our country everywhere, through our airports, ports, but most importantly at the southern border,” Pompeo said. “And a wall is a vital component of that.”
“The most important thing we can do is turn off the flow from those three countries, and reduce the risk to our Customs and Border [Protection] agents, our ICE agents, the men and women who are tasked with apprehending these folks,” he added.
