Migration tops agenda for Biden in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — A regional migration is expected to dominate talks between US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday.

Biden arrived in Mexico City late on Sunday after a politically charged stop at the southern US border, his first since taking office.

He was expected to meet with Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday and Tuesday one-on-one and also together in what is dubbed the "Three Amigos" summit.

While trade and environmental issues are also on the table, Biden has put a surge in irregular migration and dangerous drug trafficking front and center of his trip.

"Our problems at the border didn't arise overnight," Biden tweeted after his arrival.

"And they won't be solved overnight. But, we can come together to fix this broken system. We can secure the border and fix the immigration process to be orderly, fair, safe and humane."

On his way to Mexico, Biden stopped for several hours in El Paso, Texas, a city at the heart of the troubled border.

He met with US officials at the Bridge of the Americas crossing, watching a demonstration of the latest border enforcement technology, as well as a customs sniffer dog. He later got out of his motorcade to inspect a section of the tall fencing that snakes between El Paso and its twin city Juarez on the Mexican side.

Political pressure

Biden is under huge political pressure in the face of spiraling illegal border crossings and applications for asylum by people making perilous journeys from regional countries afflicted by repression, poverty or severe crime.

In a sign of the deep tensions over immigration, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, handed Biden a letter as soon as he touched down in the state that said the "chaos" at the border was a "direct result" of the president's failure to enforce federal laws. Biden later took the letter out of his jacket pocket during his tour, telling reporters, "I haven't read it yet."

Biden's visit sought to respond to Republican accusations that he has been ignoring the situation. But it seems too little, too late.

"It's gripping the hemisphere, and a regional challenge requires a regional solution," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News, noting that migrants were on the move from as far afield as Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Adding to the crisis has been a surge in cross-border smuggling of the highly addictive and often deadly narcotic fentanyl.

In 2021, the United States and Mexico announced a revamp of their fight against drug trafficking to address the root causes of migration, encourage economic development and bolster curbs against cross-border arms smuggling.

Agencies via Xinhua