WASHINGTON, United States: US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Monday said they had ordered concrete steps to reduce illegal border crossings.
The issue is an explosive one in November’s US election.
But a Sunday’s joint statement by the two leaders after they spoke, gave no details of the measures to check crossings over the southern US border with Mexico.
Donald Trump-led Republicans have sought to make border security a key issue ahead of the election, portraying their rival, Biden as soft on stopping illegal immigration.
According to the joint statement released by the White House, the two leaders ordered their national security teams to work together to immediately take concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights.
Lopez Obrador, at a news conference in Mexico, said president Biden initiated the call and that he himself wanted the two nations to work together as “neighbours, friends and trading partners.”
The Mexican leader also said that the flow of migrants across the border has decreased thanks to social programmes implemented by the government in the region.
Biden has previously said he would consider so-called executive measures to address the issue, including tightening asylum procedures and temporarily closing borders.
But he has faced backlash from within his own party for what are considered too harsh measures on asylum seekers.
Polls show a majority of voters blame Biden for the record number of immigrants crossing the border, which reached a record 10,000 a day in December but has declined in recent months.
More than 2.4 million migrants crossed the US southern border in 2023 alone, many from Central America and Venezuela, fleeing poverty, violence and disasters exacerbated by climate change.
As he seeks an unprecedented return to the White House, President Trump has stepped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric, repeatedly saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Mexican leaders also committed to efforts to address the root causes of migration in the Western Hemisphere, including measures aimed at economic and security advancement, the statement said.
Lopez Obrador has previously announced that he will work with Biden to step up measures on the Mexican side of the border to stem the flow of migrants.
But he also spends billions of dollars each year to reduce poverty in Latin America, ease sanctions against the leftist governments of Venezuela and Cuba, and grant legal status to millions of Mexicans living in the United States.
