Mexico Wants US To Negotiate Deportations Directly With Third Countries
Migrants board a train to Chicago after traveling from El Paso, April 3, 2024. Photo: X/ @chasejohn
June 7, 2024 Hour: 12:03 pm
President Lopez Obrador recommends that Washington have direct dialogues with countries such as Cuba and Venezuela
On Thursday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) said that the United States should negotiate deportations of undocumented migrants directly with the third countries they come from, including Cuba and Venezuela,
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During his daily press conference, the president acknowledged that Washington has poor relations with those countries, but said talks on immigration could help improve ties.
“Since we have very good relations with everyone, we have agreements and we can send migrants from Mexico to any country,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at the National Palace in Mexico City.
However, “we want them to reach agreements, for the United States to reach an agreement with Cuba, to begin a bilateral dialogue,” he said, also mentioning Venezuela.
It was the second day in a row Lopez Obrador broached the topic of immigration, after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order earlier this week severely limiting the number of people who can cross the U.S.-Mexico border to apply for asylum in the United States.
As a transit route for migrants of different nationalities attempting to reach the United States, Mexico is deeply impacted by any changes in U.S. immigration policy, especially along its northern border.
On Thursday, Irineo Mujica Arzate, director of the organization Pueblos Sin Fronteras, warned that Mexico’s border with Central America will also suffer from the restriction on asylum and the acceleration of deportations imposed by the United States since a bottleneck will be created in that region with thousands of undocumented immigrants stranded or returned.
“Biden’s new executive order hands the migrant community to organized crime, violence and to stay in Mexico for a few months,” he said, anticipating that the U.S. policy will generate chaos in Tapachula, the Guatemalan city bordering Mexico.
If historical trends are taken into account, the largest migratory flow towards Tapachula will occur within the next four months and will be aggravated by the number of returnees from the United States that the Mexican Government will send to the southern border.
Sources: Xinhua – EFE
teleSUR/ JF
