NEW LINE IN SAND
Biden vows to work ‘together’ with Mexico on border issues, COVID
President Biden promised his Mexican counterpart on Monday that he’s committed to working hand-in-hand on coronavirus, immigration and economic issues, seeking to draw a sharp contrast with his predecessor’s hostile relationship with the neighboring nation.
Speaking from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Biden made the sweeping diplomatic pledges in a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, their first bilateral discussion since his inauguration.
“This is what I know: The United States and Mexico are stronger when we stand together,” Biden told Lopez Obrador at the outset of the meeting. “We haven’t always been perfect neighbors with one another. We’re safer when we work together, whether it’s addressing the challenges of our shared border, or getting this pandemic under control.”
Before reporters were directed out of the room for the private portion of the meeting, Biden said he’s also looking to bring back a policy that he made while serving as vice president.
“In the Obama-Biden administration, we made a commitment that we look at Mexico as an equal, not as somebody who is south of our border. You are equal, and what you do in Mexico and how you succeed impacts dramatically what the rest of the hemisphere will look like,” he said.
Lopez Obrador was expected to float a plan during the meeting for a new immigrant labor program that could bring as many as 800,000 Mexican and Central American immigrants a year to work in the U.S. legally.
It’s unclear if Biden’s willing to play ball on such a plan, though he has unveiled a proposal that includes providing a path to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., many of whom are of Mexican descent.
A readout of the meeting provided by the White House did not address the matter directly, but said the leaders “agreed to collaborate on a joint effort to address the root causes of regional migration, to improve migration management, and to develop legal pathways for migration.”
On the pandemic front, Biden was asked by a reporter before the closed-door discussion if he would be willing to send some coronavirus vaccine doses to Mexico.
“We’re going to talk about that,” Biden replied.
Biden’s openness to the idea appeared to contradict comments made by his chief spokeswoman earlier in the day.
“No,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said when asked if Biden was considering exporting vaccines to Mexico.
“The president has made clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to every American. That is our focus,” she said.
White House spokeswoman Kevin Munoz said there wasn’t a discrepancy because Biden’s comment was made in the context
of knowing that Lopez Obrador would bring up the matter in the meeting. “She said what our imperative is for right now,” Munoz said of Psaki.
Lopez Obrador and Biden also discussed economic issues and climate change, with the Mexican president confirming he’ll attend this April’s planned Climate Summit hosted by the U.S.
The White House readout said the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was developed under President Donald Trump’s administration as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement.
While blasting Trump for what he considered his promotion of “Hispanophobia” and racism, Lopez Obrador enjoyed a relatively amicable relationship with the former president and found common ground with him in the three-nation deal.
But Lopez Obrador finds a more traditional U.S. president in Biden, who’s eager to turn the page on Trump’s divisive rhetoric and obsession with building a wall on the Mexican border.
Lopez Obrador said he sees Biden as a strong ally.
“We are not only united by geography. We are also united by our economies, our trade, our culture, our history and our friendship,” the Mexican president told Biden while exchanging pleasantries at the opening of the meeting.
Since Biden took office, his administration has scrapped a controversial Trump plan that forced mostly Central American asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their cases play out.
Also on the immigration front, Biden and Democrats in Congress hope to permanently extend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that allows migrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children to stay.
But some of Biden’s most ambitious immigration goals are likely to remain on the back burner because of the pandemic, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for now keeping extraordinary Trump-implemented emergency powers in place to expel anyone crossing the U.S. border illegally from Mexico.