US President Joe Biden arrived in Mexico City on Sunday ahead of the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico and received a red-carpet welcome from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He then joined Biden in his armoured limousine for the journey from the airport.
Biden will hold one-on-one meetings with Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday and Tuesday and also together in what is dubbed the “Three Amigos” summit.
Earlier, Biden visited the US-Mexico border for the first time since taking office. He stopped for several hours in El Paso, Texas, a city at the heart of the troubled border.
Border Patrol agents accompanied Biden who then toured a section of the wall that divides the two countries to demonstrate that he was taking the issue of migration seriously. Notably, the wall was a signature priority of former president Donald Trump.
He also met with US officials at the Bridge of the Americas crossing, watching a demonstration of the latest border enforcement technology, as well as a customs sniffer dog. He later inspected a section of the tall fencing that snakes between El Paso and its twin city Juarez on the Mexican side.
“They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them,” Biden told reporters after his visit to the customs post.
Irregular migration and dangerous drug smuggling will be the main points of discussion during his first trip to Mexico as president. Trade and environmental issues will also be on the table.
Biden on Thursday had said his administration would tighten immigration enforcement by blocking Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants at the border, expanding the nationalities of those who can be expelled back to Mexico.
Illegal border crossings have seen an increase with several people applying for asylum as well, putting Biden under tremendous pressure. Adding to the crisis has been a surge in cross-border smuggling of the highly addictive and often deadly narcotic fentanyl.
Biden’s visit sought to respond to Republican accusations that he has been ignoring the situation.
In a letter, Texas Governor Greg Abbott accused Biden of failing to enforce immigration laws.
“You have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws,” Abbott wrote in a letter he handed to Biden upon his arrival in the state.
In his meetings with Lopez Obrador and Trudeau, Biden will address the regional scope of the issue.
(With inputs from agencies)
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