Well now..it looks as though the pressure Biden is putting on Mexico is paying off. I imagine that the thought of another Trump Presidency does not excite the Mexican leader?
The Biden administration and Texas are taking credit for an unusual springtime lull in illegal border crossings, with the White House touting its legal pathways and Gov. Greg Abbott championing his troops and concertina wire. But analysts, immigrant advocates and migrants themselves say it's Mexico blocking the path north.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's immigration agency has intensified a busing program that aims to hurt migrants' chances of reaching the U.S. border – or at least delay their arrival – by apprehending them on highways, train routes and airports and shipping them to the southernmost part of his country.
Immigrant advocates say the policy drives vulnerable people into the arms of smugglers. Migrants report being extorted on routes north only to be intercepted at checkpoints and returned to southern Mexico to do it all again.
"The Mexican government is busing people in circles," said Andrew Selee, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute.
"The numbers aren't down because of busing in Texas," he said. "The numbers are down because of busing in Mexico."
The busing program is a response, analysts say, to the surge in migrants arriving from Venezuela and other countries where Mexico, like the U.S., can't easily return people. Mexico's foreign ministry, interior ministry and immigration agency, the Instituto Nacional de Migración, didn't respond to requests for comment.
Mexico's crackdown is evident in the number of migrant encounters resulting in a person being detained or placed in a shelter – but not deported.
These encounters ballooned to more than 726,000 in 2023, according to Mexico's interior ministry, from fewer than 179,000 in 2021. In January and February alone, Mexico reported more than 230,000 encounters with migrants who were placed in detention or shelters and then released.
The Biden administration and Texas are taking credit for an unusual springtime lull in illegal border crossings, with the White House touting its legal pathways and Gov. Greg Abbott championing his troops and concertina wire. But analysts, immigrant advocates and migrants themselves say it's Mexico blocking the path north.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's immigration agency has intensified a busing program that aims to hurt migrants' chances of reaching the U.S. border – or at least delay their arrival – by apprehending them on highways, train routes and airports and shipping them to the southernmost part of his country.
Immigrant advocates say the policy drives vulnerable people into the arms of smugglers. Migrants report being extorted on routes north only to be intercepted at checkpoints and returned to southern Mexico to do it all again.
"The Mexican government is busing people in circles," said Andrew Selee, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute.
"The numbers aren't down because of busing in Texas," he said. "The numbers are down because of busing in Mexico."
The busing program is a response, analysts say, to the surge in migrants arriving from Venezuela and other countries where Mexico, like the U.S., can't easily return people. Mexico's foreign ministry, interior ministry and immigration agency, the Instituto Nacional de Migración, didn't respond to requests for comment.
Mexico's crackdown is evident in the number of migrant encounters resulting in a person being detained or placed in a shelter – but not deported.
These encounters ballooned to more than 726,000 in 2023, according to Mexico's interior ministry, from fewer than 179,000 in 2021. In January and February alone, Mexico reported more than 230,000 encounters with migrants who were placed in detention or shelters and then released.
