Mexico's President Offers Suggestions Before US Talks

A US delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Mexico City on Wednesday for talks about turning the tide of illegal immigration across the border. The two-hour meeting reflected urgency, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pointed out beforehand that the urgency will only increase in the US as it nears the 2024 presidential elections. "The migration issue is going to intensify," he said. A US official said the talks would address ways to slow migration across the region generally, as well as border security measures, the Wall Street Journal reports.

López Obrador has asked the US to work with Cuba and Venezuela to curtail emigration from the region's poorest nations. At a press conference before meeting with the US team, the president suggested that Congress provide greater support to Latin America, rather than erecting "barriers, barbed wire fences on the river or thinking about building walls," per the New York Times. "It is more efficient and more humane to invest in the development of the people," López Obrador said. (More US-Mexico border stories.)