End of Title 42: The US assured Mexico that it will maintain other similar immigration systems

The president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, met with the White House national security adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, to discuss the immigration policy of both countries before the end of Title 42, drug and arms trafficking.

The meeting took place on Tuesday at the National Palace in Mexico City.

The envoy of the United States government, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, assured this Tuesday in a meeting with AMLO that the United States will maintain legal immigration systems that will function similarly to Title 42, after its foreseeable repeal on May 11.

“They told us that they are going to take the measures, in accordance with their legal provisions, to maintain what is working with Title 42 with other legal systems,” said the Foreign Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, in statements to the media. at the end of the meeting, in which he was also present.

Ebrard considered that immigrants are being deceived, since they think that when the legal measure, adopted by Donald Trump (2017-2021) and later continued by President Joe Biden to expel migrants on the grounds of the covid-19 pandemic, expires, They will be able to enter the United States without restrictions.

“They have already made it clear to us that it will not be like that,” said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) of Mexico.

For his part, Lopez Obrador and members of his cabinet asked Sherwood-Randall for a greater investment to facilitate legal paths for immigrants trying to reach the United States by crossing through Mexico.

“What was the insistence of the president of Mexico? The need to invest, particularly in Central America, although not only, the need to expand those legal, documented, regular paths”, explained Ebrard.

Although previous meetings with the White House representative addressed the fentanyl crisis, this time the meeting focused on migratory flows.

In a message posted on his Twitter account, Lopez Obrador said that they were approached “with a humanist approach.”

Hoy sostuvimos tres reuniones importantes: recibimos a Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, enviada del presidente Biden para tratar el tema migratorio con un enfoque humanista. También nos dieron la buena noticia de que la empresa Pacific Limited construirá en Sonora un gasoducto y una… pic.twitter.com/roO6igomwY

— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) May 2, 2023

At the meeting, chaired by the president of Mexico, Ebrard was also present; the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto Lopez; Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval; that of Marina, Rafael Ojeda, and the deputy general director of administration of the National Institute of Migration (INM), Armando Lopez.

The United States, continued Ebrard, expressed its concern about the increase in the flows of immigrants from Venezuela and other countries that are arriving at its southern border, in addition to offering a response to the demands of Mexico for a legal migratory route.

“He told us that the humanitarian visa program for Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans will be maintained. And they have now expanded it to 100,000, and it is something that has gone unnoticed, for people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,” Ebrard said.

In addition, Ebrard thanked President Joe Biden for having sent “such a close agent” to report directly to Lopez Obrador.

Although Ebrard did not comment on the matter, the United States government announced Tuesday that the Pentagon will temporarily deploy 1,500 soldiers to the border with Mexico for 90 days.

It is expected that, with the end of Title 42, migratory flows will continue to grow, after the United States intercepted a record 2.76 million immigrants last year and Mexico reported an annual increase of more than 43% in the number of immigrants. people in an irregular situation in the country in 2022, which registered some 444,439.