An immigrant family crosses to the American side of the Rio Grande on December 19, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. A major surge of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to seek political asylum has overwhelmed U.S. border authorities in recent weeks.
Published December 27, 2023
(CNN — Senior US officials will head to Mexico Wednesday to seek more help from their counterparts to drive down border crossings as President Joe Biden faces increasing pressure over the handling of the US southern border.
Immigration has been a political vulnerability for Biden amid fierce criticism from Republicans and some members of his own party over the situation at the US-Mexico border. This month, the issue fell at the center of the president’s foreign policy agenda, as the White House lobbied for aid to Ukraine and Israel amid their war efforts. Lack of consensus over border policy changes ultimately kept Biden from clinching billions of dollars in funds for Ukraine, Israel and the border before the end of the year.
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Homeland Security officials have discussed a range of ways Mexico can help drive down numbers at the US border that will be among their asks, including moving migrants south, controlling the railways that are used by migrants to move north, and providing incentives to not journey to the border, like visas, to remain in the country and avoid migrating irregularly.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall will attend the gathering, which bookends a year that kicked off with migration as a key issue.
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SOURCE: www.cnn.com
RELATED: Blinken, Mayorkas to travel to Mexico as pressure grows on Biden to act on border
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is seen during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing to review of the National Security Supplemental Request on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
Published December 27, 2023
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will travel to Mexico City on Wednesday to discuss historic levels of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border as pressure ratchets up on the Biden administration to act.
They will be joined by White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall and meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The meeting will be focused on “unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways” each country can address border security challenges, including reopening key ports of entry, the Department of State said in a statement last week.
It will serve as a follow-up to President Biden’s phone call with López Obrador last week, when the two agreed additional enforcement action was urgently needed.
The meeting also comes as attention turns to a caravan reportedly made up of 6,000 migrants that is making its way toward the U.S. and promising to be a political headache for both countries’ leaders. It would be the largest organized group of migrants to form in Tapachula, Mexico, since 2022, when news of a similarly sized caravan threatened to overshadow the Summit of the Americas, hosted in Los Angeles by the Biden administration.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Blinken heads to Mexico for talks as migration surges at US border
Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads Wednesday to Mexico in hopes of showing headway in tackling surging migration, which has climbed to the top of political headaches for President Joe Biden as he enters an election year.
Migrants take part in a caravan towards the border with the United States in Tapachula, Chiapas State, Mexico, on December 24, 2023. © AFP stringer
Published December 27, 2023
Blinken heads to Mexico for talks as migration surges at US border
Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads Wednesday to Mexico in hopes of showing headway in tackling surging migration, which has climbed to the top of political headaches for President Joe Biden as he enters an election year.
The unusual Christmas week trip by the top US diplomat was abruptly scheduled as the rival Republican Party presses Biden for a migration crackdown in return for agreeing in Congress to one of his key priorities – support for Ukraine.
Around 10,000 people have been seeking to enter without authorization each day on the southern US border, nearly double the number before the pandemic, with a new caravan of hundreds if not thousands of people leaving by foot from southern Mexico on Sunday.
US border authorities have been so overwhelmed that they have suspended several legal crossings to focus on processing migrants.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador discussed migration in a telephone call Thursday with Biden, who agreed to send Blinken, who is accompanied by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and White House migration official Liz Sherwood.
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SOURCE: www.france24.com
