Biden, AMLO vow to cooperate on immigration

US President- elect Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, nicknamed AMLO, on Saturday made a commitment to work on a humane strategy to regional migration by addressing its root causes in Central America and southern Mexico.

The two in a phone call “discussed working together on a new approach to regional migration that offers alternatives to undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States,” a summary of the call provided by Biden’s team said.

The two leaders said they shared a desire to address the reasons for migration in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and southern Mexico.

Biden pledged to build “the regional and border infrastructure and capacity needed to facilitate a new orderly and humane approach to migration that will respect international norms regarding the treatment of asylum claims,” the statement from Biden’s team said.

Earlier last week, Lopez Obrador suggested the two neighbors under Biden’s new administration work together on the thorny issue of immigration.

US President Donald Trump’s unprecedented demands that the Mexican government do more to reduce the flow of US- bound migrants, including harboring migrants in Mexico while they wait for their US court dates and paying for a border wall, caused friction in the relationship.

Biden emphasized the need to reinvigorate US- Mexico cooperation on migration as well as the COVID- 19 pandemic, the economy and border security.

“We reaffirmed our commitment to working together for the well- being of our peoples and nations,” Lopez Obrador said on Twitter.

A Mexican government source told Reuters that Biden and Lopez Obrador also spoke about investment for development and respect for the Mexican community in the US.