The US Secretary of the Interior will travel to Spain next week

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, last May.Patrick Semansky / AP

The United States Department of Homeland Security announced this Friday that its secretary will travel to Spain on June 22 and 23 with the aim of "reaffirming the bilateral relationship between the two countries," paying special attention to migration challenges and cybercrime. . According to Homeland Security, during the trip to Spain there will be meetings with "senior government officials", including the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to reaffirm the "bilateral relationship and deepen cooperation on shared priorities." The challenges of migration and cybercrime will deserve special attention, according to sources from this ministerial department.

Mayorkas already had the opportunity to speak with the Spanish minister, via videoconference, on April 15, in what was a first contact in which they pledged to strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

At the meeting next week, both political leaders are expected to appear jointly at a press conference from the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior in Madrid.

Mayorkas' visit to Spain will take place a week after the first and very brief contact between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and Biden during the NATO summit in Brussels.

The arrival of Joe Biden to power on January 20 placed for the first time in the Administration a Latino at the head of the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for implementing and managing immigration policies.

Mayorkas, a jurist born in Havana 60 years ago and whose family fled Cuba after the Castro revolution, was

the Department of Security between 2013 and 2016, during the second term of Barack Obama.

On him fell the review of some of the most controversial domestic policies of the Trump era, such as stopping the construction of the wall imposed on the border with Mexico.

The US secretary also plans to visit Portugal, where he will participate in a ministerial meeting on Justice and Home Affairs between the EU and the United States, in addition to meeting with his Portuguese counterpart and that of the European Commission.

In all his meetings, the Secretary of Homeland Security will address common security threats, including violent extremism and cybercrime, as well as migration and mobility issues, among others, as reported by the US administration.

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