Mexico to invest $1.5B in ‘smart’ border tech
WASHINGTON — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to spend $1.5 billion to improve “smart” border technology during meetings Tuesday with President Joe Biden — a move the White House says shows neighborly cooperation that succeeds where the Trump administration’s vows to wall off the border and have Mexico pay for it could not.
A person familiar with a series of agreements the two countries hammered out as their leaders met in Washington said they also called for other things like expanding the number of work visas the U.S. issues and welcoming more refugees. They also would continue joint patrols for Mexico and Guatemala to hunt human smugglers along their shared border.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agreement hadn’t been formally announced. But the Biden administration was excited about securing border funding from Mexico after years of failed attempts by former President Donald Trump.
The agreements came hours after the meetings began with López Obrador offering more than half an hour worth of comments. He touched on everything from Americans heading south for cheaper prices at Mexican gas stations to the New Deal politics of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while chiding conservatives and saying the U.S. and Mexico should reject the “status quo” on the border.
López Obrador said both countries “should close ranks to help each other” amid spiking inflation and border challenges brutally underscored by 53 migrants who died last month after being abandoned in a sweltering tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio.
Though in the past he’s not shied away from U.S. criticism, López Obrador struck a positive tone with Biden.
Biden was equally conciliatory, saying, “we see Mexico as an equal partner” and shrugging off differences of opinion on policy with López Obrador, “You and I have a strong and productive relationship and I would argue a partnership.”
That was a departure from last month, when López Obrador declined Biden’s invitation to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles after unsuccessfully urging the U.S. to include the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — all countries with anti-democratic regimes.
Speaking of the migrant deaths in Texas, Biden said, “We know we have to meet these challenges together.” He said the U.S. and Mexico agree on the need to increase opportunities for legal migration, especially since more workers can help alleviate U.S. labor shortages and potentially help calm rising prices.
“This is a proven strategy that fuels economic growth as well as reduces irregular migration,” Biden said.
Immigration has been a political flashpoint for Biden as top Republicans have pointed to a rising number of people from Mexico and Central America crossing the southern U.S. border illegally while slamming the administration and top Democrats for not doing more to slow it. López Obrador acknowledged those criticisms, but said the situation at the border will require solutions, not just politics.
“The way out is not through conservatism. The way out it through transformation,” he said. “Transform, not maintain the status quo.”
A series of agreements announced by the Biden administration pledged joint actions to modernize and improve infrastructure along key parts of their 2,000-mile border, enhance law enforcement cooperation against fentanyl smuggling and promote clean energy.