Harris turns focus to address migration during Mexico trip

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the United States and Mexico are “embarking on a new era” during her first in-person meeting with the leader, as she seeks to foster greater cooperation with Mexico on immigration to the US.

Speaking at the start of their bilateral meeting at the Mexican national palace, Harris emphasized the “longstanding relationship” between the two nations and their “interdependence and interconnection.”

Joined by a number of her top foreign policy aides for the region, the two foreign leaders met for over an hour in an elegant conference room at the palace, seated across from each other under a grand crystal chandelier.

Just prior to the meeting, Harris and López Obrador watched as the Mexican foreign affairs secretary and the charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Mexico signed a memorandum of understanding establishing greater cooperation between the two nations on development programs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Harris aides have said during her meeting with López Obrador, the two planned to discuss vaccine sharing, the economic and security relationship between the two nations, and dealing with the root causes of migration from other countries in the region. Harris speaks frequently of the need to improve economic conditions for residents of the region.