MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday he would ask U.S. President Joe Biden to issue work visas to Mexican farmers participating in a government tree planting program.
López Obrador cites the program as a way to help the United States regulate migration.
The United States “is looking for alternatives because migration is out of control,” López Obrador said. “Instead of trying to block it with sanctions, it should be channeled and ordered.”
He wants the United States to grant six-month work visas to farmers who have participated in the paid tree planting program for three years. He also wants the US to grant farmers citizenship after they have been applying for visas in the US for six years.
López Obrador has said he will expand the proposal during talks on climate change later this week. López Obrador said Mexico’s contribution to combating climate change involves renovating old hydroelectric plants, as well as the program known as ‘Planting Life’, which pays as many as 400,000 Mexican farmers to plant fruit and timber trees.
Mexico has sought to expand the program to El Salvador and wants the U.S. to help fund an expansion to other Central American countries.
In another climate zone, however, López Obrador has drawn criticism from some activists for placing restrictions on renewable energy and gas-fired private power plants that compete with the government’s electricity supply and the burning of highly polluting fuels such as coal and fuel oil.