‘Migrant president’: Mexico says Biden asylum policies boost illegals, cartels

By Elizabeth Elizalde

March 10, 2021 | 6:12pm

Honduran migrants are blocked by Guatemalan soldiers and police from advancing toward the US border, on the highway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala on Jan. 18, 2021.Sandra Sebastian/AP, File

The Mexican government is concerned that President Biden’s asylum policies are encouraging illegal immigration and providing revenue to drug cartels through human trafficking across the US border.

Mexico has asked the Biden administration for help to provide developmental aid to Central America since many of the migrants come from countries such as Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala seeking asylum in the US.

“They see him as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said of Biden after their virtual meeting on March 1, according to Reuters.

“We need to work together to regulate the flow, because this business can’t be tackled from one day to the next,” Lopez Obrador added.

Some of Biden’s policies that worry the Mexican government include a fast track to citizenship for migrants living in the US and support for gang violence victims.

Internal assessments reviewed by Reuters — based on testimony and intelligence gathering — state that Mexican gangs have been growing their clientele and keeping tabs on US measures that would encourage migration. Additionally they have developed a new tracking system to move migrants across the US-Mexico border.

One Mexican official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters the cartels have been using sophisticated smuggling methods “from the day Biden took office,”

Those strategies include keeping migrants up to date on the latest immigration rules, using technology to thwart authorities, and disguising smuggling operations as travel agencies, according to the assessments.

Reuters also reported that plastic wristbands, some labeled “arrivals” or “entries” in Spanish, were seen discarded near Penitas, Texas after illegal immigrants crossed the border.

“Migrants have become a commodity,” the official told the outlet. “But if a packet of drugs is lost in the sea, it’s gone. If migrants are lost, it’s human beings we’re talking about.”

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