The Supreme Court may have made a mistake when it held that federal law allows President Joe Biden to release hundreds of thousands of migrants into the United States every month, but the court did get one thing right: The only way the U.S. government will ever bring the southern border under control will be with the cooperation of Mexico.
It was true in 2014 when President Barack Obama bribed then-Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto with $100 million in exchange for implementing Programa Frontera Sur, which heavily increased the number of border agents on Mexico’s southern border and the number of mobile checkpoints throughout the country.
It was true in 2019 when President Donald Trump used the threat of tariffs to force Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to agree to cooperate with Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy.
And it is still true today. Problem is, Biden doesn’t have the will to make border security a priority in U.S.-Mexico relations. If anything, he is just as pro-open borders as Obrador is, who has said migrating to the U.S. was a “human right.”
Biden’s unwillingness to protect U.S. sovereignty has given Obrador all the leverage in today’s meeting between the two leaders at the White House.
Just ask former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Arturo Sarukhan, who told USA Today, “Lopez Obrador unfortunately has realized that he’s got a great deal of leverage, because of how important the issue of migration is for the United States administration at this stage. In many ways, Lopez Obrador feels that he can have his cake and eat it too.”
Until Biden is willing to show strength, not weakness, our southern border will remain in chaos.
