US-Mexico relations: Kamala Harris meets Lopez Obrador

US Vice President Kamala Harris held a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday to discuss immigration policies. It was their second meeting in a month.

At the start of the call, Harris said the US and Mexico must combat violence and corruption together, to help cut back migration from Central America.

“Most people don’t want to leave home and when they do it is often because they are fleeing some harm or they are forced to leave because there are no opportunities,” said Harris.

The talks come at a time the Biden administration grapples with a surge in people crossing into the US at the southern border.

In March, President Joe Biden tasked Harris with leading diplomatic efforts to decrease immigration from Mexico and “Northern Triangle” countries Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Biden raised the US’s annual refugee cap on Monday to 62,500. It followed pressure from the Democratic party and refugee agencies after initially sticking by the historically-low Trump-era figure of 15,000.

What is on the agenda?

Lopez Obrador said he and Harris would focus on bilateral migration as well as discuss when to lift curbs on the border imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week, Ricardo Zuniga, the US special envoy on the Northern Triangle countries, said Harris and Biden would also delve into trade and economic cooperation.  

“We’re undertaking these kinds of engagements with the view of the totality of our relationship with Mexico in mind,” Zuniga said. “Mexico is our largest trading partner … We’re deeply connected to them through economics and, through … our value chain and production chains,” he added.

Harris has said she will visit Mexico and Guatemala on June 7-8 for her first trip abroad as vice president.

Mexico makes formal complaint to US

Shortly before the scheduled call with Harris, Lopez Obrador sent a diplomatic note asking Washington to explain funding for Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, a group critical of the Mexican government.

“It’s promoting a form of coup,” Lopez Obrador said, adding that the funding, which includes money from USAID, undermines Mexico’s government and sovereignty.

“It is an interventionist act that violated our sovereignty… That’s why we’re asking that (the U.S. government) clarifies this for us. A foreign government can’t provide money to political groups,” he said.

• The vast and perilous US-Mexico border

  Tijuana and San Diego’s walled beach

  A large wall stretches into the Pacific Ocean at the beaches of San Diego and Tijuana, two populous cities separated by the US-Mexico border. It is one of the most secure areas of the frontier and is part of the 1100 kilometers (700 miles) of fencing that have been completed thus far.

• The vast and perilous US-Mexico border

  Politically divisive

  The fight over how to secure the border has divided Republicans, who support more fencing, and Democrats, who argue that using technology is more effective. Experts estimate it would cost $15-25 billion (€13-22 billion) to fully wall off the entire southern frontier.

• The vast and perilous US-Mexico border

  The dangerous desert stretch

  Large swaths of the border are covered in desert, desolate and uninhabited. Many migrants try to cross these areas, where they fall victim to disorientation, dehydration and where the risk of death is high. Activists often leave water (pictured) and other supplies to help migrants survive the dangerous trek.

• The vast and perilous US-Mexico border

  The Rio Grande

  Roughly half of the 3,000-kilometer border falls along the snaking Rio Grande. Migrants regularly attempt to cross the river, either by swimming or on rafts. The calm appearance of the Rio Grande is deceitful, as it is a fast-moving river with dangerous currents.

• The vast and perilous US-Mexico border

  Crowded points of entry

  The US-Mexico border is considered the most transited frontier in the world. Most of the movement takes place at the various points of entry, where lawful back-and-forth traffic and asylum-seekers meet. The Matamoros-Brownsville International Bridge (pictured) is one of 44 official points of entry and the last one before the border ends at the Gulf of Mexico.

  Author: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez

What is the situation at the US-Mexico border?

Washington has expressed concern over record number of undocumented immigrants arriving at the southern border. An influx is expected to increase as the weather warms.  

Border authorities stopped around 170,000 people trying to enter the US illegally in March, a 20-year high.

The number of unaccompanied children in particular have surged, with photos of migrant shelters showing children crammed together in poor conditions circulating on media platforms.

In February, the White House said it would start phasing out Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). The program had forced thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their asylum cases to be heard.

The US border remains closed to most asylum seekers under the Trump administration’s COVID-19-related order. Biden has not revoked the order.

About two-thirds of US adults said the Biden administration was doing a very bad or somewhat bad job of dealing with the increased number of people seeking asylum, according to a May survey from the Pew Research Center.

mvb/rt (AP, Reuters, EFE)

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/us-mexico-relations-kamala-harris-meets-lopez-obrador/a-57464594?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf