Biden, Mexico’s AMLO to talk migration, security

Bloomberg

President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, plan to discuss ways to expand legal migration, improve security and strengthen their shared border during a White House meeting on Tuesday.
The two leaders will announce joint actions to improve infrastructure and cooperation along their almost 2,000-mile boundary, according to Biden administration officials, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to speak before the meeting.
The visit is the Mexican president’s second to Washington since Biden took office 18 months ago, and comes about a month after Lopez Obrador snubbed Biden’s invitation to a regional summit in Los Angeles after the US excluded the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua for violating their citizens’ democratic and human rights.
Biden and Lopez Obrador will also establish a task force to escalate efforts to disrupt trafficking on fentanyl, the people said. Overdoses of the drug kill tens of thousands of Americans each year, and Mexico for years has been a major transit point for pills coming from China, and is increasingly becoming a production center.
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump repeatedly threatened Mexico with tariffs and border closings and planned the construction of a wall if the nation didn’t do more to stop undocumented migration.
Lopez Obrador, however, got along well with Trump personally, and his government’s relationship with the US under Biden has, at times, shown strain. US officials have pressed Mexico over its state-centered energy policy that they say violates the free-trade deal among the two nations and Canada. Lopez Obrador, in turn, says Central America hasn’t seen enough of promised US investment towards development intended to help reduce migration.
He said Monday that he would use the White House exchange to urge Biden to allow more immigration, including of Mexicans and Central Americans, that he envisions as strengthening the US labor force and helping curb inflation.
Lopez Obrador also plans to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday before his session with Biden