Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) about the crisis at the southern border. He brought along his sidekick, DHS Secretary Mayorkas. As could have easily been predicted, nothing came of the meeting.

The U.S.-Mexico partnership is crucial to prosperity and security in our countries and throughout the Americas. Good to discuss these issues, and our shared efforts to reduce irregular migration, with @lopezobrador_ today in Mexico City. pic.twitter.com/uNdEq8QMAh

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 27, 2023

As we made clear in Mexico City today, we are committed to partnering with Mexico to address our shared challenges, including managing unprecedented irregular migration in the region, reopening key ports of entry, and combating illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 28, 2023

All Blinken said was that talking was good. That means no new commitments or agreements were settled on. The meeting in Mexico City was pure optics. There was no substance. Joe Biden sees the writing on the wall – the southern border is a disaster. That does not bode well in his bid for re-election. Voters are angry and illegal immigration is a top issue.

Mexico officials want the border crossings reopened. Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said this is a top priority for Mexico. The Biden administration wants help from AMLO in reducing illegal immigration. AMLO wants financial commitments. Shocker, I know.

More than half a million illegal immigrants crossed the Darien gap jungle into Central America this year. That is double last year’s record. Most claim to want to come to the United States to leave poverty and crime behind. Neither of those reasons are reasons to qualify for asylum.

The border crossings were closed by CBP earlier this month as a temporary move in order to redeploy personnel resources elsewhere to help manage the high number of illegal immigrants. Closing border crossings means loss of business and trade which affects the local and state economies. It is also bad for businesses who truck products across the border.

As usual, AMLO lectured the Americans on measures used to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. He is not a real partner in trying to curb the flood of illegals and gave no indication that he will assist in keeping more migrants on the southern side of the border in Mexico.

Lopez Obrador, who last week assured the U.S. that Mexico would help ease migratory pressures, earlier in the day said the U.S. Congress should be investing in poor people in Latin America and the Caribbean “instead of putting up barriers, barbed wire fences in the river, or thinking about building walls”.

“It is more efficient and more humane to invest in the development of the people and that is what we have always proposed,” Lopez Obrador told a press conference.
Lopez Obrador added he expects next year’s U.S. election will bring the issue of migration to the forefront.

“We have to take care because campaigners use this issue as a rallying cry,” Lopez Obrador said.

Blinken saying that talking is good means nothing. The media reports that he and Mayorkas went to Mexico for a crisis meeting about the open southern border. It was meant to make the Biden administration look like they are doing something. No one should be fooled. It was all for show. The group does not plan to meet again until sometime in January. How many more tens of thousands of illegal immigrants will be allowed into the interior of the United States by that time?

As they met, thousands were marching north from southern Mexico in a caravan. They plan to continue until they reach the U.S. border. There is no word on whether or not that issue was brought up with AMLO.

Where is Kamala? She and Joe Biden are on vacation until after we ring in the New Year.

Continue its efforts? What efforts? Mexico is enabling the chaos at the border by mass issuing humanitarian visas to migrants that allow them to travel through MX straight to the U.S. border…then they discard the visas on the ground when they cross illegally. And the trains?! https://t.co/vp3lObAJdl

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 28, 2023