Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday emphasized the “respect” of the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, “towards the Mexican people” in her appeal the day before.
“Yesterday I spoke with the Vice President of the United States, Ms. Kamala, and we discussed the issue of migration and there is an attitude of great respect towards the people of Mexico and I would say that towards migrants,” said López Obrador . in his morning press conference.
The president’s statements come a day after his phone call to Harris, who has been responsible for migration from Central America and Mexico since March, in which they talked about the migration crisis plaguing the region, trafficking in human beings and respect for human rights.
The president claimed that Mexico is ready to “join forces in the fight against human trafficking and the protection of human rights, especially girls and boys”.
“The aim is for it to be an orderly, safe migration, one of our concerns that we have communicated is that we need to protect migrants in the south of our country,” López Obrador clarified on Thursday.
The region has seen a growing migration flow to the United States since Democrat Joe Biden’s arrival at the White House in late January, following a change in rhetoric and a pledge to help thousands of asylum seekers stranded at the Mexican border.
According to official data, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained 100,441 migrants in February and 78,442 in January, while more than 170,000 arrests are expected to take place in March.
As López Obrador acknowledged, the number of unaccompanied minors in particular has warned.
The left-wing leader stressed the need to “address the causes of migration” and urged Washington to approve $ 4 billion for development cooperation in southern Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America.
“We need to support Central America, they know, I mean the United States government, the vice president said yesterday, they have an initiative for the US Congress to provide $ 4,000 million in aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. “, he said. stated.
After highlighting a 20% annual increase in remittances from the United States, López Obrador also highlighted Mexico’s interest in an immigration reform that legalizes undocumented migrants.
“These issues are always being discussed, there is a commitment from the US administration, from President Biden to have an immigration policy with a social dimension, with a human dimension, I have maintained here that we congratulate that initiative,” he says. noticed.