Biden and López Obrador reiterate their commitment to a "humane and orderly" migration management before the end of Title 42

The presidents of the United States, Joe Biden, and Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have spoken on Tuesday by telephone for about an hour, in which they have discussed the imminent migratory changes in the US and have reiterated their commitment to a "humane and orderly" management of the flows of people. They have also addressed drug and arms trafficking and cooperation for welfare, the Mexican leader said in a tweet.

The call, the first in six months between the two presidents, comes just two days before the expiration in the United States of the measure known as "title 42", imposed during the mandate of Donald Trump and that facilitated the rapid expulsions of irregular migrants, without the authorities coming to accept the asylum applications of the new arrivals. With the argument of preventing the spread of covid. With this disappearance, migrants can re-process their asylum applications through the courts, in processes that may take years to resolve but during which the petitioner remains on US soil. At the same time, another measure, Title 8, will begin to apply, which will allow for the rapid expulsion of those whose applications are not admissible. U.S. authorities anticipate that starting Friday thousands of migrants will attempt entry to try their luck and promise a "humane" and "orderly" response.

The two leaders, according to the White House in a statement, addressed "their efforts to strengthen the bilateral relationship, including the importance of reinforcing cooperation between the United States and Mexico to manage unprecedented migration in the region." To this end, the statement added, they addressed "close coordination between border authorities and forceful measures (to enforce the border) in preparation for a return to Title 8 ... which implies harsher consequences for those expelled than for those who have been expelled under Title 42."

Biden and López Obrador stressed, the text adds, the value of migration management "in a humane and orderly manner, with expanded legal channels and consequences for irregular migration. They also confirmed the shared commitment to manage the causes of migration in Central America" and the "urgency" of effectively reducing the agglomeration of migrants on the northern Mexican border.

In a deeply polarized country where immigration is one of the most divisive issues, the Republican opposition, which has made the fight against illegal immigration one of its great electoral flags, calls for a strong hand and assures that "the barriers are about to be broken." Some congressmen of this party speak of the entry of a million people in the next three months.

The US administration maintains that it has been taking steps to ensure that the situation will be under control at all times. It has established temporary accommodation centres, reached agreements for the processing of asylum applications in Colombia and Guatemala so that migrants do not have to undertake long and dangerous journeys to reach the Mexican border to present their cases, and agreed on measures to accept a greater number of residence permits, 30,000 per month, for citizens of several American countries, from Haiti to Venezuela. But those permits are still far fewer than the number of people of those nationalities who want to reach the United States.

Title 42 will be replaced by Title 8, which allows the application for asylum if the person concerned can prove that he would suffer persecution or torture back in his country, but authorizes the rapid deportation of others and prohibits them from entering the United States for five years after removal. Last week, the Biden Administration also announced the dispatch of 1,500 troops to reinforce the border guard.

The announcement of the end of the measure – implemented in March 2020 with the beginning of the pandemic in America – has caused hundreds of thousands of migrants of different nationalities to turn towards Mexico's borders with the United States to try to enter US territory.

True to form, after the call with his US counterpart, the president of Mexico published a message on social networks in which he briefly reported that they talked for an hour and talked about migration, cooperation for the poorest countries (and that are the main emitters of migrants) and arms trafficking. "We are good neighbors and friends," he said in the post in which he attached a photograph taken during the call.

The two leaders also discussed the fight against arms trafficking and fentanyl, one of the biggest irritants in the bilateral relationship. The United States suffers from a veritable epidemic of use of this synthetic opioid – of the nearly 110,000 overdose deaths in 2021 in this country, more than two-thirds were caused by that drug – and points to Mexico as the source from which this substance arrives. The Mexican president, for his part, rejects that fentanyl entering the United States is manufactured in his country.

Both leaders alluded to recent "enhanced and accelerated efforts to combat arms and fentanyl trafficking by dismantling criminal networks" and Biden, according to the White House, expressed his commitment to using "all available tools" to stem arms trafficking and reduce the flow of firearms into Mexico. "The leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to modernizing the shared border and promoting inclusive economic growth."

A year and a half before the US elections, the positions of the political class in Washington on fentanyl trafficking have hardened. Congressmen from the hard-line Republican Party propose designating Mexican cartels as terrorist groups, which would open the way for the US government to develop military operations on Mexican soil to capture drug traffickers. The White House does not contemplate this possibility, but insists that Mexico must do more.

Precisely, this Tuesday the Department of the Treasury has announced the imposition of new sanctions against one of the sons of Chapo Guzmán, Joaquín Guzmán López, three more members of the Sinaloa cartel and two more companies for their role in drug trafficking to the United States.

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