Biden meets with Mexican president

Discusses immigrant labor, COVID-19 vaccine measures

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden met virtually Monday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – a chance for the pair to talk more fully about migration, confronting the coronavirus and cooperating on economic and national security issues.

“This is what I know, the United States and Mexico are stronger when we stand together,” Biden told López Obrador at the outset of the meeting, alluding to past differences between the two countries. “We’re safer when we work together. Whether it’s addressing the challenges of our shared border, or getting this pandemic under control.”

Mexico’s president had said he intended during the meeting to propose to Biden a new immigrant labor program that could bring 600,000 to 800,000 Mexican and Central American immigrants a year to work legally in the United States.

A senior Biden administration official declined to say whether the U.S. president would back or oppose the proposal, saying only that both countries agree on the need to expand legal pathways for migration. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations. Asked about the Mexican president’s proposal. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that reinstituting the “Bracero” program would require action by Congress.

The original Bracero program allowed Mexicans to work temporarily in the United States to fill labor shortages during World War II and for a couple of decades after the war. López Obrador said the U.S. economy needs Mexican workers because of “their strength, their youth.”

On Monday, López Obrador said his new proposal would be a program not only for agriculture workers but for other sectors and professionals.

The White House also signaled that Biden was not willing to budge on another López Obrador request – to send U.S.-manufactured coronavirus vaccines to his country. Psaki said Biden would not agree to the move.

U.S. manufacturing expanded in February at the fastest pace in three years with the arrival of a surge in new orders.

The Institute for Supply Management reported Monday that its gauge of manufacturing activity rose to a reading of 60.8% last month, 2.1 percentage points above the January level of 58.7%. It was the strongest performance since February 2018. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector.

The survey found optimism increasing with five positive comments for every cautious comment, up from a 3-to-1 ratio in the January survey.