Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Mexico City on Wednesday to discuss the rise in illegal immigration as thousands of migrants pass through southern Mexico in a mass movement toward the United States.
Blinken will meet with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a time when border crossings have reached record numbers. There have been days this month when Border Patrol encountered more than 10,000 people on the southern border.
Wednesday’s meeting will also include Alejandro N. Mayorkas, secretary of homeland security, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, White House national security adviser.
A huge caravan that began its journey north on Sunday It is a sign of the enormous challenges that exist in stemming the tide of migration. Local officials and media reports in Mexico estimate that between 6,000 and 10,000 people are making the trip.
The southern border has been a constant political vulnerability for President Biden, who promised on his first day in office to “restore humanity and American values to our immigration system” after the sweeping restrictions of the Trump years.
But Biden has struggled to keep the numbers low, despite trying to set limits on asylum access at the border and deport migrants to Venezuela and Cuba.
Although migrant caravans have become a common phenomenon and authorities often break them up long before they reach the United States border, the latest march has received special attention due to its date, just before Blinken’s visit.
The caravan, about 1,000 miles south of the U.S. border in the state of Chiapas, includes migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela and Haiti, among other countries.
In November, a smaller caravan dispersed after officials took away hundreds of immigrants to local shelters.
Republicans have intensified their attacks on Biden over the border numbers, a potential vulnerability for the president as he seeks re-election next year. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott signed a law authorizing his state’s law enforcement officers to arrest migrants who cross illegally. (El Paso County challenged the measure in federal court last week.) The president has also faced pressure from mayors of Democratic cities over the increase in immigrants arriving in their cities.
Immigration has also become central to congressional discussions over aid to Ukraine and Israel. Republicans have refused to approve wartime aid without a new border offensive.
The increase in border crossings in recent weeks has forced border officials to temporarily close railway crossings in El Paso and Eagle Pass, Texas, and close the port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona. As rail crossings reopen, Biden administration officials plan to speak with Mexican officials about port of entry closures, officials said in a statement.
Last week, López Obrador briefed reporters on a call with Biden in which they agreed that more control is needed at the border.
“Now we have an extraordinary situation because the number of migrants passing through our country with the purpose of reaching the United States has increased,” he said, adding that Mexico “is going to help, as we always do.”
López Obrador said he shared with Biden the goal of strengthening containment measures in southern Mexico so that migrants and asylum seekers do not reach the border.
The other necessary component, he said, is to try to address the root causes of migration and help resolve political disputes in the region.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced Friday that there were more than 190,000 apprehensions between ports of entry in November. US officials said they have “expelled or returned” more than 400,000 people between May and the end of November.
“We are facing a serious challenge along the southwest border and CBP and our federal partners need more resources from Congress – as outlined in the supplemental budget request – to improve border security and U.S. national security,” he said. Troy Miller, acting leader of the border agency, said in a statement Friday.
