A delegation of senior White House officials held “collaborative and constructive” talks with the Mexican government in a bid to stem the flow of migrants to the southern border, a politically fraught crisis under the charge of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The delegation met with officials from Mexico’s Foreign Ministry, migration and development agencies, and was joined by top White House national security aide Juan Gonzalez, as well as Ricardo Zuniga, President Joe Biden’s Northern Triangle special envoy.
“We discussed everything,” one senior administration official said of the visit, which was led by Biden’s coordinator for the southwestern border, Ambassador Roberta Jacobson.
“One thing that the Mexican authorities made very clear was No. 1, that they see this very much as a shared responsibility,” the person continued. “They have a challenge, just as the United States does, and they want to work very closely with us.”
Senior officials in the two countries were communicating daily, he said.
Biden has come under criticism for the issue, including from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said the Democrat set “expectations” leading migrants to believe they would be allowed to enter the U.S.
KAMALA HARRIS GIVEN LEAD ROLE OVER BORDER BY PRESIDENT BIDEN
Biden officials stressed to reporters that U.S. demands were not being forced upon the Mexican government, rather this was a collaborative effort resulting from shared national interests.
Part of this would include targeting smugglers and traffickers over the next 90 days, who officials said had purposefully miscommunicated U.S. immigration policies for profit.
They discussed the need to ensure Guatemala is equipped to enforce its border. Meetings with the country’s president and foreign minister were canceled after the delegation’s flight was grounded after a volcano erupted, delaying conversations with another crucial partner in the region.
Mexican officials who briefed the delegation said the country was ramping up enforcement along migration routes and along their own southern border as spring migrant caravans travel upward from the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
In January, Guatemalan officials apprehended a caravan of up to 7,000 migrants heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border, the type of large-scale mobilization that the Trump White House pressured the governments of Central America and Mexico to crack down on.
“They explained some of their operations and gave us a clear understanding of what they saw in terms of trend lines,” a senior administration official told reporters.
At question is whether Biden’s strategy to deal “humanely” with the growing number of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border will succeed in stemming the flow of people, a task with which the president charged Harris.
Former President Donald Trump’s policies to deport migrants immediately after arriving in the U.S. drove down the number of people held in U.S. custody, but advocates and White House aides said there were repercussions.
Biden argues that this tactic is in part responsible for the surge that is evident today, as people who were turned around try again.
Aides on the call Thursday said their plan to manage the southern border “responsibly” by enforcing U.S. immigration law and working with regional partners would prove the more effective, and sustainable, strategy.
The Biden administration began engaging the Mexican government over the surge before Biden entered office, one official said.
“I would say Secretary [Antony] Blinken has talked to his Mexican counterpart more than he’s talked to any other foreign minister,” the person said.
Biden ceased enforcing a rule to deport minors apprehended at the southern border immediately and returned some families, but the number of people who have been taken into custody has overwhelmed federal capacity.
“We are obviously expelling large number of migrants, but those are primarily adult males,” a senior official told reporters.
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The president enlisted Harris to take control of the issue Wednesday, leading the diplomatic efforts inside the region and leveraging U.S. and private sector resources to address the economic and political drivers of migration in each country.
