1 of 2 | Secretary of State Antony Blinken will lead a delegation of U.S. officials to Mexico to negotiate measures at the border. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
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Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will lead a delegation of senior U.S. officials to Mexico City in a key immigration meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday.
White House Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall will join Blinken and Mayorkas at the key migrant meeting that takes place amid a reported new influx of migrants, estimated at 6,000, walking through Mexico from Tapachula to the U.S. border.
That does not include the more than 11,000 who are waiting to enter the United States in shelters and camps on the Mexico side of the border.
At stake for President Joe Biden is coming away with some movement to ease the wave of immigrants coming to the U.S. southern border that is now receiving bipartisan calls for practical solutions.
Republicans have taken advantage of the border crisis by demanding immigration policy changes in exchange for foreign aid support for Israel and Ukraine.
The meeting is a continuation of diplomacy over the immigration issue, started by Biden's phone call with Lopez Obrador last week, where the two agreed that urgent action along the border was needed.
Lopez Obrador said he was willing to work with the United States in reinforcing containment measures at Mexico's southern Mexico to slow the number of migrants entering his country to make the dangerous trek to the United States.
He also expressed the need to tackle the root causes of the surge from Latin America into Mexico and the United States to get a true handle on the crisis.
"Secretary Blinken will discuss unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges, including actions to enable the reopening of key ports of entry across our shared border," a State Department statement said last week.
"Secretary Blinken will reaffirm the United States' commitment to the Los Angeles Declaration for Migration and Protection and underscore the urgent need for lawful pathways and additional enforcement actions by partners throughout the region."
