By EFE
Apr 29, 2024, 3:01 PM EDT
WASHINGTON – The president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, agreed to implement immediate measures to drastically reduce irregular crossings of migrants at the southern border, both governments announced this Monday in a joint statement.
Biden and López Obrador held a phone call on Sunday and ordered their national security teams “to work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights.”
According to the same note, the two leaders also committed to “promote initiatives to address the fundamental causes of migration” on the continent and agreed that “increasing regional prosperity and security” is of vital importance to address long-term migration. migration crisis.
The Joe Biden Administration, which has not detailed what these “immediate measures” are, pressured Mexico at the end of last year to toughen operations to interrupt the routes that migrants take towards the north, especially on freight trains, after of record numbers of border crossings.
The arrival of migrants to the southern border of the United States decreased during January and February, something that US officials and experts attribute to the restrictive measures imposed by Mexico.
However, it is not clear whether this trend will be sustained: just last week, more than 1,000 migrants arrived aboard a freight train, known as ‘La Bestia’, in Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua), north of Mexico, border with El Paso (Texas).
Tension between the United States and Mexico over border migration has increased amid the presidential election campaigns that both countries are holding this year.