Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said President Biden’s administration created expectations for migrants that led to the crisis at the border.
“Expectations were created that with the government of President Biden, there would be a better treatment of migrants. And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border, thinking that it is easier to do so,” Lopez Obrador said during his daily news conference on Tuesday.
AMLO: “Expectations were created that with the Government of President Biden there would be a better treatment of migrants. And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so” pic.twitter.com/TNrZQamuWK
— José Díaz-Briseño (@diazbriseno) March 23, 2021
His comment comes after Mexican Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced nearly 9,000 army and national guard troops were deployed to the nation’s border with the United States to cope with the influx of migrants.
This isn’t the first time Lopez Obrador, who had a good working relationship with former President Donald Trump, has criticized the Biden administration. Earlier this month, he said migrants see Biden “as the migrant president, and so many feel they are going to reach the United States.” He emphasized working with the U.S. to “regulate the flow because this business can’t be tackled from one day to the next.”
The Biden administration, meanwhile, has denied a crisis is occurring at the border, which White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated on Monday.
“Children presenting at our border, who are fleeing violence, who are fleeing prosecution, who are fleeing terrible situations, is not a crisis,” Psaki said.
Local leaders in states along the border, however, have slammed the new administration for the influx of migrants, demanding more transparency and the deployment of forces such as the National Guard to cope with the crisis.
“The Biden administration has been an abject failure when it comes to ensuring the safety of unaccompanied minors who cross our border,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. “President Biden’s refusal to address the border crisis is not only enabling criminal actors like human traffickers and smugglers, but it is exposing innocent, unaccompanied children to illness and potentially unsafe living conditions.”
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One Arizona mayor also declared a state of emergency in response to the border crisis.
“Border Patrol let us know that they were going to be dropping migrants that had been detained for 72 hours in our town, which we really didn’t understand because we have nothing here,” Gila Bend Mayor Chris Rigg said. “We have no charity organizations that can help, no nongovernmental organizations that a lot of the larger cities and towns do have to assist these people.”
