WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden and the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador have given new steps to combat illegal immigrationincluding stricter law enforcement on railways, buses and airports, as well as increased immigration deportation flights from USA and Mexico.
Biden has proposed making some changes to curb immigration under pressure from the presidential elections after three years of maintaining a flexible border policy. Immigration chaos has become a key issue in the elections.
The two leaders previewed the measures in a joint statement following a call on Sunday, which focused on joint efforts to “effectively manage” migration and the border between the United States and Mexico. Biden and López Obrador noted that they have ordered their national security teams to work together to “immediately implement concrete measures” to reduce the number of illegal crossings across the border.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said: The United States and Mexico will increase measures to prevent the use of the main means of transportation that facilitate illegal migration to the border, as well as the number of migrant deportation flights. Kirby also said both countries “will respond immediately to increases in migrants.”
Arrests increase
Arrests increased markedly in April on at least one part of the border, in San Diego, which appears to have emerged as the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Arrests in that area totaled 9,513 in the week ending Friday, the third consecutive increase since the 6,695 arrests made in the first week of April, according to Patricia McGurk-Daniel, head of the San Diego sector of the US Border Patrol.
The new steps come as Biden continues to deliberate whether to take executive actions that would impose stricter measures to reduce the number of migrants arriving at the US southern border.
Executive order?
Since the failure of border legislation in the US Congress earlier this year, the White House has not ruled out the possibility of Biden issuing an executive order on asylum rules to try to reduce the number of migrants at the border. Any unilateral action would likely rely on presidential authority under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which confers broad powers to block the entry of certain immigrants if their entry is deemed detrimental to the national interest.
Administration officials have pored over various options for months, but Biden has not decided on any executive action. White House aides have seen little immediate urgency for the president to take any action, given that the number of illegal border crossings has fallen from a record 250,000 in December.
The call between the leaders was held on Sunday at Biden’s request, López Obrador said Monday at his daily press conference in Mexico City.
“We communicate periodically,” said López Obrador. “I look for him, he looks for me, we talk.”
The Mexican leader said both countries have made progress in controlling undocumented migration by persuading many migrants not to use illegal methods to travel from one country to another. López Obrador also praised the US Supreme Court’s decision in January to allow Border Patrol agents to continue cutting the razor wire that the state of Texas installed along the border to try to prevent migration.
Source: With information from AP
