Migrants cross the Rio Grande river to achieve the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.

Christian Chavez/AP

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Christian Chavez/AP

Migrants cross the Rio Grande river to achieve the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.

Christian Chavez/AP

MEXICO CITY — A high U.S. delegation met with Mexico’s president Wednesday in what many noticed as an try and have Mexico do extra to restrict a surge of migrants reaching the U.S. southwestern border.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has stated he’s prepared to assist, however he needs to see progress in U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela, two of the top sources of migrants, together with extra growth assist for the area.

But Mexico’s high precedence seemed to be getting the United States to reopen border crossings that had been closed due to the migrant surge.

“We spoke about the importance of the border, and about the economic relationship … the importance of reopening the border crossings, that is a priority for us,” Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena stated after the assembly.

Both sides within the talks face strain to achieve an settlement after previous steps like limiting direct journey into Mexico or deporting some migrants did not cease the inflow. This month, as many as 10,000 migrants had been arrested each day on the southwest U.S. border.

The U.S. has struggled to course of 1000’s of migrants on the border, and home them as soon as they attain northern cities. And Mexican industries had been stung final week when the U.S. briefly closed two very important Texas railway crossings, arguing that border patrol brokers needed to be reassigned to take care of the surge. Another non-rail border crossing remained closed in Lukeville, Arizona, and operations had been partially suspended in San Diego and Nogales, Arizona.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left open the chance that these crossings may very well be reopened if Mexico gives extra assist.

“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,” his workplace stated.

Mexico says it detected 680,000 migrants shifting by means of the nation within the first 11 months of 2023.

Mexico has assigned over 32,000 navy troops and National Guard officers — about 11% of its complete forces — to implement immigration legal guidelines, and the National Guard now detains much more migrants than criminals.

But the shortcomings of that method had been on show Tuesday, when National Guard officers made no try and cease a caravan of about 6,000 migrants, many from Central America and Venezuela, from strolling by means of Mexico’s primary inland immigration inspection level in southern Chiapas state close to the Guatemala border.

In the previous, Mexico has let such caravans undergo, trusting that they might tire themselves out strolling alongside the freeway.

By Wednesday, Lazara Padrón Molina, 46, from Cuba was sick and exhausted. The caravan set out Dec. 24 from town of Tapachula and had walked about 45 miles (75 kilometers) by means of the warmth to Escuintla in southern Chiapas state.

“The route is too long to continue walking. Why don’t they just give us documents so that we could get a bus or a taxi?” Padrón Molina stated. “Look at my feet,” she stated, displaying blisters. “I can’t go on anymore.”

But carrying the migrants out — by obliging Venezuelans and others to hike by means of the jungle-clad Darien Gap, or corralling migrants off passenger buses in Mexico — not seems to work.

So many migrants have been hopping freight trains by means of Mexico that one of many nation’s two main railroad corporations suspended trains in September due to security considerations. Police raids to tug migrants off railway automobiles — the type of motion Mexico took a decade in the past — could be one factor the American delegation want to see.

A couple of blocks from Mexico City’s primary plaza — the place Blinken will meet with López Obrador on the National Palace — migrants stayed at an improvised shelter at a church, gathering power earlier than persevering with north.

David Peña, his two daughters and his pregnant spouse, Maryeris Zerpa, hoped to achieve the United States earlier than the kid is born in a few month.

“The goal is to cross over so the baby will be born there,” Peña stated. But with no asylum appointment, he had no concept how the household will enter.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and homeland safety adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall are also attending the assembly.

The U.S. has proven that one nation’s issues on the border shortly develop into each nations’ issues. The Texas railway closures put a chokehold on freight shifting from Mexico to the U.S., in addition to grain wanted to feed Mexican livestock shifting south.

López Obrador confirmed final week that U.S. officers need Mexico to do extra to dam migrants at its southern border with Guatemala, or make it harder to maneuver throughout Mexico by practice or in vans or buses, a coverage often called “contention.”

But the president stated that in change he wished the United States to ship extra growth assist to migrants’ house nations, and to cut back or remove sanctions in opposition to Cuba and Venezuela.

“We are going to help, as we always do,” López Obrador stated. “Mexico is helping reach agreements with other countries, in this case Venezuela.” He stated Mexico has proposed to President Joe Biden {that a} U.S.-Cuba bilateral dialogue be opened.

In May, Mexico agreed to absorb migrants from nations comparable to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who had been turned away by the U.S. for not following guidelines that supplied new authorized pathways to asylum and different types of migration.