Mexico: US “co-responsible” for immigration

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that the United States should help find a common solution to reduce illegal immigration from Central American countries, which is mainly due to poverty.

“The country” is the protagonist of the immigration phenomenon “, the USA” must become co-responsible to find a solution, by modifying their immigration policy “, the Mexican president said after a meeting with his Salvadorian counterpart Nagib Boukele.

Washington must help fight poverty and violence that “are forcing millions to flee their homes,” said Lopez Obrador, also known by the nickname AMLO, from the initials of his name.

In addition to the United States and Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, three countries from which so-called caravans of migrants often depart, must join a “joint effort” to find a solution, according to AMLO.

Mexican president begins fifth diplomatic tour of Central America and Cuba even more so after May 23rd.

After Guatemala and El Salvador, he arrived in Honduras last night and is then expected to travel to Belize and Cuba.

In the last three weeks of April, U.S. authorities arrested 7,800 undocumented immigrants along the 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico, five times the 2014-2019 average.

The already large influx may increase further from May 23, when Washington is expected to lift restrictions on immigration for public health reasons under the so-called “Title 42” (referred to in a 1944 law to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. diseases).

The measure, which was triggered by Donald Trump’s presidency in March 2020, when the new coronavirus pandemic broke out, allowed U.S. authorities to deport some 1.8 million illegal immigrants, according to data gathered by U.S. think tanks such as Pew. Research Center.

Before embarking on his tour, the Mexican president announced on Wednesday that he was stepping up controls along his country’s southern border with Guatemala, “to protect immigrants, no matter how contradictory or paradoxical it may sound.”

Mr Lopez Obrador is urging the United States to invest heavily in economic growth in Central America, especially to create jobs.

Mexico itself exports the “Sembrando Vida” (“Sowing Life”) reforestation program to the so-called northern triangle states of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

According to his government, thanks to this program with Mexican funding, about 20,000 people in Central American states will secure about $ 250 a month.