The Biden Administration secured a deal with the Mexican government to curb undocumented immigration to the United States, leaders in Mexico announced this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and DHA Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have been pushing the Mexican government to do more about migrants coming from Central and South America, who often pass through Mexico on their way to the United States. The Mexican government has unveiled a new taskforce to fulfill that request.
The task force will increase immigration controls in Mexico itself, encourage migrants already there to stay in the country rather than trek north, and re-open key ports of entry. The deal was celebrated by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on social media, who called the agreement “important.”
The deal comes ahead of a migrant caravan of 7,500 from 24 different countries. Most of them are fleeing crime, war, and civil unrest. The caravan entered Mexico earlier this week and was in the state of Chiapas on Wednesday.
Lopez Obrador has dismissed claims that he would be using police crackdowns to deal with the migrants, preferring to focus on humanitarian aid.
“No, no, because they know very well what our proposals are. We’ve always talked about addressing the root causes, that the ideal path is to help poor countries,” he told reporters.
The same cannot be said of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has prepared for the influx of migrants by signing a law that makes illegal immigration a state crime. The new law gives police broad powers to arrest people suspected of crossing the border and adds another $1 billion to the governor’s long and expensive border activities. Experts say the new law is almost certainly unconstitutional and oversteps state power, but it’s likely to increase anti-immigrant activity from authorities regardless. The law goes into effect in March.
Meanwhile, Abbott continues to randomly send busloads of migrants to Democratically controlled cities, including Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles. In some cases, the buses were driven by unlicensed drivers.
Abbott has repeatedly used the stunt to try and expose hypocrisy from liberal lawmakers about welcoming migrants. In most cases, migrants in these cities are welcomed with food, shelter, and aid, despite the fact that they often arrive with no notice and little but the clothes on their backs thanks to Abbott’s actions. Chicago has started fining bus companies that arrive with improper notice, but that has encouraged the drivers merely to divert to suburbs like Aurora with fewer resources.
Despite constant claims from Abbott that Biden has opened the borders and done nothing to curb undocumented immigration, illegal border crossings dipped to the lowest point in two years this past July. Much of that can be laid at policies the administration has implemented, such as streamlining the asylum seeker process for migrants in other countries.
