Joe Biden And Mexican President Set To Discuss Migration, Fentanyl And Cuba Relations

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, two sturdy allies who don’t at all times get alongside personally, will discuss migration, fentanyl trafficking and Cuba relations on Friday.

The 2 leaders are in San Francisco for the annual Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation convention, the place Biden has held a collection of face-to-face conferences with different leaders, together with China’s President Xi Jinping and the leaders of Japan and South Korea, as he seeks to reassure the area that the U.S. and China are opponents, not zero-sum rivals.

Biden’s relationship with López Obrador is at occasions tense, partially due to Biden’s willingness to criticize Mexico on matters similar to fentanyl manufacturing and the killing of journalists. And López Obrador isn’t afraid to snub the U.S. chief. He skipped a Los Angeles summit final 12 months the place leaders tackled the problem of migration as a result of the U.S. didn’t invite Cuba, Nicaragua or Venezuela. He additionally initially mentioned he would skip this 12 months’s APEC convention, however modified his thoughts.

López Obrador mentioned he would use Friday’s assembly with Biden to take up the case for Cuba and would urge his U.S. counterpart to renew a dialogue with the island nation and finish U.S. sanctions.

Biden, in the meantime, was anticipated to carry up migration because the U.S. continues to handle a rising variety of southern border crossings. The leaders are also anticipated to debate lethal fentanyl trafficking, notably after Biden secured an settlement with Xi to curb the illicit opioid.

The problems are associated. Human smuggling over the border is part of cartel operations that additionally embody drug trafficking into the U.S.

Mexico and China are the first sources for artificial fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. Almost all of the chemical compounds wanted to make it come from China, and the medication are then mass-produced in Mexico and trafficked through cartels into the U.S.

The highly effective opioid is the deadliest drug within the U.S. at the moment. Greater than 100,000 deaths a 12 months have been linked to drug overdoses since 2020 and about two-thirds of these are associated to fentanyl. The dying toll is greater than 10 occasions as in 1988, on the top of the crack epidemic.

And migration challenges dealing with the U.S. are rising more and more intractable. Democratic leaders on the state and native stage are begging for federal help to assist take care of migrant households dwelling in squalid shelters and sleeping in police stations. Republicans are loudly crucial of Biden’s border insurance policies as too lax. And Congress has not handed an immigration overhaul in many years.

Biden requested for $14 billion from Congress for border safety however the momentary spending invoice he signed didn’t have funding for the border, Ukraine support or Israel.

There are rising numbers of migrants on the border. Arrests for unlawful crossings alongside the U.S.-Mexico line had been up 21% to 218,763 in September, and Biden has repeatedly mentioned Congress ought to act to repair outdated immigration legal guidelines. However within the meantime, his administration has developed insurance policies that intention to discourage migrants from making a harmful and sometimes lethal journey whereas additionally opening up new authorized immigration pathways.

Mexico’s assist is crucial to any push by the U.S. to clamp down on the southern border, notably as migrants from nations as far-off as Haiti are making the trek on foot up via Mexico and usually are not simply despatched again to their dwelling international locations.

Earlier this 12 months, Mexico agreed to proceed to just accept migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua who’re turned away on the border, and as much as 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who’ve household within the U.S. will likely be eligible to stay and work there.

In line with information on asylum-seekers in Mexico, individuals from Haiti remained on the high with 18,860 up to now this 12 months, increased than the entire for the entire of 2022.

In the meantime, the U.S. is accepting 30,000 individuals monthly from the 4 international locations for 2 years and providing them the power to work legally, so long as they arrive legally, have eligible sponsors and move vetting and background checks.

Guatemala and Colombia will open regional hubs the place individuals can go to make asylum claims within the hope of stopping them from touring on foot. However Mexico has up to now refused to permit the U.S. to set one up.

Related Press author Christopher Sherman in Mexico Metropolis contributed to this report.