US-Mexico border talks yield ‘important agreements’ on rail and bridge crossings

People wait near a border crossing in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on 20 December. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Two countries agree to enhance efforts to tackle human smuggling, poverty and violence and promote legal ‘pathways’ US and Mexican officials have hailed the success of talks held on Wednesday aimed at curbing historically high unauthorized immigration across their shared, 2,000-mile border that risks becoming a humanitarian disaster and an election year political crisis for Joe Biden. After the closed-door meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Mexican foreign minister, Alicia Bárcena, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador , hailed what he described as “important agreements”. On Thursday, a Mexico-US joint communique shared by the White House said the meeting reaffirmed their shared commitment to “orderly, humane and regular migration”. The countries said they would strengthen a sponsorship initiative for Venezuelan, Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants and look to tackle its root causes such as poverty and violence. There will be enhanced efforts on disrupting human smuggling and trafficking and promoting legal “pathways”, while both delegations remained committed to “vital bilateral trade”. Earlier on Thursday López Obrador told reporters that the two parties had agreed to keep border crossings and border bridges open after temporary closures of two key rail crossings earlier this month by US authorities, which had been a priority issues for Mexican officials. The US had redeployed agents toward enforcement, sparking a trade slowdown and criticism by Republicans of the Biden administration’s border policies. López Obrador said: “This agreement has been reached, the rail crossings and the border bridges are already being opened to normalize the situation. Every day there is more movement on the border bridges.” He has previously pledged to help ease migratory pressures on Mexico’s northern neighbor while also calling on the […]

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