U.S. President Joe Biden walks Sunday with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador upon his arrival to the Felipe Angeles international airport in Zumpango, Mexico.
AP Photo/Fernando Llano
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador said Monday in the leadup to this week’s summit of North American leaders that he would consider accepting more migrants than previously announced under President Joe Biden’s plan to turn away people from four nations who cross illegally into the United States.
“We don’t want to anticipate things, but this is part of what we are going to talk about at the summit,” López Obrador said. “We support this type of measures, to give people options, alternatives,” he said, adding that “the numbers may be increased.”
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, cautioned that nothing was decided yet.
“What we need is to see how the program announced last week works in practice, what if any adjustments need to be made to that program and then we can talk about taking the next steps,” he said.
The comments were a reflection of the highly sensitive negotiations about migration, which will be a central issue during the two-day summit involving Biden, López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
All three nations are struggling to handle an influx of people arriving in North America, as well as crack down on smugglers who profit from persuading migrants to make the dangerous trip to the U.S.
Other issues on the table include climate change, energy and supply chains.
Sullivan said Monday the trip would be “a good opportunity for President Biden to deepen his personal engagement with President López Obrador and Prime Minister Trudeau.”
Ahead of the summit, Biden announced a major shift in migration policy, which had been negotiated with Mexico. Under the plan, the U.S. will send 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela back across the border from among those who entered the U.S. illegally. Migrants who arrive from those four countries are not easily returned to their home countries for a variety of reasons.
In addition, 30,000 people per month from those four nations who get sponsors, background checks and an airline flight to the U.S. will get the ability to work legally in the country for two years.
Biden arrived in Mexico on Sunday night via the new Felipe Angeles International Airport, a prized project of the Mexican president. The hub was christened last year with fanfare, though it’s more than an hour’s drive north of the city center, has few flights and until recently lacked consistent drinking water.
The Mexican president described the two leaders’ first encounter of the trip as “very pleasant,” and he said, “President Biden is a friendly person.”
It was a notably warm comment given that the men’s relationship has been merely transactional at best and absent the warmth and camaraderie Biden has with some other world leaders.
