Presidency of Joe Biden: Mexico's strong expectations on the migration issue
(illustration) The caravan of Central American migrants in Tapachula, Mexico, October 22, 2018. REUTERS / Ueslei Marcelino
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Among the decrees signed Wednesday, January 20 by President Joe Biden during his first day as president, one concerns the end of the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico.
On the migration issue in particular, with Joe Biden, a turning point is shaping up in relations with Mexico.
Mexican President Andrès Manuel López Obrador, AMLO, encouraged him.
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"
A new stage of mutual respect and shared hopes
" is the almost lyrical formula used by the Mexican government to describe the future relationship with Joe Biden.
A propósito of the toma of posesión of @JoeBiden como presidente of EE.
UU., El presidente @lopezobrador_ afirmó that also coincides very main planteamientos:
-La atención inmediata to the pandemic.
-The economic reactivación.
-The necesidad of a nuevo migratory plan.
pic.twitter.com/J3jEkkTlt3
- Gobierno de México (@GobiernoMX) January 20, 2021
President López Obrador sees in the migration plans of the new occupant of the White House the basis of this agreement, underlines our correspondent in Mexico,
Emmanuelle Steels
.
He encouraged him to keep, as a priority, his promise to regularize the situation of the more than ten million Mexicans who have lived undocumented in the United States for many years.
The new American president will present to Congress a migratory reform project, which will in particular make it possible to regularize the situation of some
700,000
Dreamers
, these young adults who entered the United States illegally in their childhood and who have lived there ever since.
Among them, many Mexicans.
A program, called DACA and intended to protect these Dreamers from expulsion, had been put in place by the Democratic government of Barack Obama, but Donald Trump had canceled it in 2017.
►
To read also
: The "Dreamers" in full nightmare
Then, AMLO asked his American counterpart to reinstate the development aid canceled by Trump, which was intended for Central American countries, in order to mitigate the phenomenon of mass exodus, highlighted by the caravans.
For his part, Joe Biden should continue to put pressure on the Mexican government to contain migrants, still further south.
A few days before his inauguration, a caravan made up of
9,000 migrants who left Honduras
had brought the delicate migration issue to the fore.
During Donald Trump's tenure, caravans crossing Mexico and reaching the border with the United States had soured the relationship between the two countries.
By wielding the threat of trade sanctions, Trump had forced Mexico to block the way for migrants.
►
See also:
Mexico and the United States reach an agreement on immigration
Joe Biden fears a crisis at his border, which would undoubtedly serve as a springboard for a mobilization of radical supporters of Donald Trump, already furious to see the construction of the wall interrupted.
One of the last trips of the outgoing president was also
devoted to this anti-migrant wall, on January 12
.
"Walls do not stop migration": López Obrador recalled yesterday the words he had addressed to Biden, still vice-president, during their first meeting, in 2012 during a visit of the first to Mexico ...
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Mexico
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Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Joe biden
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