US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to participate in inaugural US-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will take part in the Biden administration’s first US-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue today.
The agenda will focus on implementation of the immigration cooperation memorandum the two countries signed in June. In 2021, the number of migrants at the US-Mexico border has increased by 45% from its 144,000 Trump administration high-point in May 2019.
Mexico believes the memorandum and the dialogue highlight the importance of the country to the Biden administration’s migration strategy. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will likely interpret this dialogue as an opportunity to again ask for the US to support his tree-planting program in Central America while obfuscating his poor responses to organized crimes, corruption and the pandemic.
Whilst the Biden administration was not prepared for the rapid rise of migrants at the border. It plans to seek closer cooperation with Mexico to control the situation and to construct more shelters.
Lopez Obrador’s failings have exacerbated US refugee burdens. Biden will less likely fund Lopez Obrador’s tree planting proposals without any conditions on transparency. Instead, it will likely include Mexico, along with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as main beneficiaries of its $310 million supporting humanitarian relief and tackling food security.
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