Mexico, U.S. discuss need to stem ‘unprecedented flow’ of migration

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a news conference after lashing out at EU lawmakers for criticising his media antagonism, at a military base in Tapachula, Mexico March 11, 2022. Mexico Presidency/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

MEXICO CITY, March 14 (Reuters) – Mexican and U.S. officials discussed the need to address the “unprecedented flow” of migrants in the region and its root causes, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico said Monday following a high-level meeting in Mexico City.

Mexico agreed with the U.S. delegation, led by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, to work on border infrastructure “to create a 21st Century border between the United States and Mexico that enhances security and facilitates trade,” U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said in a tweet.

Mexico’s foreign ministry said that a border crossing project east of the Otay Mesa port of entry, called Otay II, was discussed as a “strategic priority.”

Mexico’s National Migration Institute said it had detained more than 2,100 migrants of various nationalities bound for the United States at the weekend, including Mexicans. Others included people from Cuba, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Earlier, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Twitter that his government discussed labor and migration issues in the meeting with Mayorkas.

“We continue to promote cooperation for development with justice and respect for human rights,” Lopez Obrador said.

While most migrants caught at the U.S. border are from Central America, officials are seeing Russians and Ukrainians passing from Mexico into the United States, the government of border city Tijuana said. Officials are trying to support them by handing out information in Russian and Ukrainian.

Mayorkas is in Mexico for meetings on Monday before he is scheduled to visit Costa Rica on Tuesday.

Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Bernard Orr, David Gregorio and Sam Holmes

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