US, Mexico Announce Measures To Address Humanitarian Situation At Border
The United States and Mexico have jointly announced a set of measures to address the humanitarian situation caused by unprecedented migration flows at the two nations’ shared border and in the region.
These decisions were taken at a meeting held in Mexico City between Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.
Mexico and the United States will increase joint actions to counter-human smugglers and traffickers that are exploiting migrants. This complements the 60-day surge campaign that the United States recently launched with Colombia and Panama to counter human smuggling in the Darien.
The two neighboring countries committed to continue to enhance their efforts in Central America to address the root causes of migration and expand legal pathways. Specifically, Mexico and the United States will redouble their development efforts that focus on people-to-people support.
Through the regional processing centers announced last week, the United States intends to welcome as many as 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador under the family reunification parole processes that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has already announced.
Mexico and the United States will continue the successful joint initiative that President Lopez Obrador and President Joe Biden announced in January, beyond May 11. This initiative – which combines expanded legal pathways with consequences for irregular migration – achieved a 95 percent drop in border encounters, according to the White House.
The United States committed to continue to welcome individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under its parole process. For its part, Mexico will continue to accept back migrants on humanitarian grounds.
The United States and Mexico will modernize their 2000-mile shared border. To that end, President Biden approved moving forward on a Presidential Permit to advance the expansion of Calexico East Land Port of Entry. This project is expected to be finalized by the end of the year – a step that will benefit both the U.S. and Mexican economies.
Meanwhile, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a temporary increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel to supplement U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) efforts on the U.S. Southwest Border.
These troops will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support for 90 days.
The White House has clarified that they will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants or migrants.
This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
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