- President Biden will participate in a “virtual event” with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
- The two will discuss migration, COVID-19, and economic cooperation, the White House said.
- López Obrador did not recognize Biden’s victory in 2020 until mid-December.
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US President Joe Biden will participate in a “virtual event” on Monday with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a center-left populist who worked closely with the Trump administration to curb America’s migration Central.
The March 1 meeting, announced by the White House, comes after López Obrador spent weeks refusing to acknowledge Biden’s victory in 2020. After his victory was formalized by the Electoral College in mid-December, however, the head of The Mexican state sent Biden a letter “to express my recognition of its position in favor of migrants from Mexico and the rest of the world”.
The two leaders agreed to a call on December 19 to collaborate on a “new approach” to Central American migration. They also spoke shortly after Biden took office.
According to the White House, Monday’s agenda includes “cooperation in migration”, as well as COVID-19 and “joint development efforts” in the Americas.
Shortly after taking office, Biden announced that he was ending the “Stay in Mexico” program, which forced asylum seekers to await their cases south of the border. He also announced that those subject to that program would now be eligible to come to the United States.
During the previous administration, Mexico collaborated closely with its main trading partner to prevent migrants from reaching the United States, deploying thousands of soldiers and installing police checkpoints across the country to arrest people from Honduras and Guatemala.