President Biden assured Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that he would consider the country an equal during a virtual meeting on Monday as his government works to unravel some of Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Biden noted that while the US and Mexico have not always been ‘perfect neighbors’, both countries are safer when there is a cooperative relationship, especially with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the Obama-Biden administration, we have made a commitment that we regard Mexico as an equal, not as someone south of our border. You are equal,” Biden said. “And what you do in Mexico and how you succeed dramatically affects what the rest of the hemisphere will look like.”
López Obrador thanks Biden for sharing his desire to base their relationship on respect and equality.
COMMANDMENT MEETING WITH MEXICO PRESIDENT IN MEDIATION TO RETURN POLICY
The Biden administration has already taken a number of steps to establish its own immigration policy, distinguishing it from the difficult rhetoric of the previous government.
Biden ordered a break over funding the border wall, which was a priority of Donald Trump’s White House to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico.
Biden also took action to preserve the Defera Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides protection to young immigrants without papers, and Trump’s pause on the request to revoke the green card within the country due to the pandemic.
Furthermore, Biden ended the previous government’s Remain in Mexico “policy, which allowed immigration officials to send non-Mexican asylum seekers to Mexico as they waited for their cases in the U.S. court system to become arbitrary.
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Critics of Biden’s immigration plans are concerned that this could lead to an increase in illegal border crossings. Arrests and detentions at the U.S.-Mexico border rose to nearly 78,000 in January, as reported by The Washington Post, which was more than double the amount recorded in the previous year.
Biden’s virtual encounter with López Obrador was his second with a foreign leader. López Obrador also received Biden’s second call to a foreign leader on his third day in the White House.