The United States plans to send millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada, the White House said on Thursday, a notable step in vaccine diplomacy at a time when the Biden government is discreetly lobbying Mexico to stem the flow of migrants arriving at the border.
Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said the United States plans to share 2.5 million doses of the vaccine with Mexico and 1.5 million with Canada, adding that “it has not yet been finalized, but this is ours objective”.
Tens of millions of doses of the vaccine are stationed in American factories. But although its use has already been authorized in dozens of countries, the vaccine has not yet been approved by American regulators.
Several European countries suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine this week, a precaution because some people who received the injection developed clots and severe bleeding. But on Thursday, Europe’s drug regulator declared the vaccine safe. AstraZeneca also said that a review of 17 million people who received the vaccine found that they were less likely than others to develop dangerous clots.
The announcement of the vaccine’s distribution came at a critical moment in the negotiations with Mexico. President Biden acted quickly to dismantle some of former President Trump’s immigration policies, halting the construction of a border wall, preventing the rapid expulsion of children from the border and proposing a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the United States.
But he is clinging to a central element of Trump’s agenda: counting on Mexico to contain a wave of people heading for the United States.
Anticipating a wave of migrants and the largest number of apprehensions by American agents on the border in two decades, Biden asked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of Mexico, in a video call this month if more could be done to help solve the problem, from according to Mexican officials and another person informed about the conversation.
The two presidents also discussed the possibility that the United States would send part of its surplus vaccine stock to Mexico, a senior Mexican official said. Mexico has publicly requested the Biden government to send doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not been approved for use in the United States.
Mexican officials say efforts to secure vaccines are separate from negotiations on migration. But they acknowledge that relations between the United States and Mexico, which has suffered one of the deadliest coronavirus epidemics in the world, would be sustained by a dose load to the south.
“Both governments cooperate on the basis of an orderly, safe and regular migration system,” said Roberto Velasco, director general for the North American region at Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, referring to engagement between the two countries on migration and vaccines.
But he said there is no compensation for vaccines: “These are two separate issues, as we are looking for a more humane migratory system and improved cooperation against COVID-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region.”
A Biden government official declined to comment on discussions with Mexico, but noted that both countries shared the common goal of reducing migration by addressing its root causes, and said they were working closely to stem the flow of people to Mexico. the border.
Mexico has agreed to increase its presence on the southern border with Guatemala to prevent migration from Central America, said one of the government officials, and local Mexican officials say his country has recently stepped up efforts to stop migrants on the northern border with the States. United as well.
But there are also signs that Mexico’s commitment to policing migration – a central requirement of Trump, who imposed the threat of tariffs on all Mexican products, unless migration was contained – may have waned in the past few months of the government Trump.
From October to December last year, the number of Central Americans seized by Mexico decreased, while arrests by American agents increased, according to figures from the Mexican government and data compiled by The Washington Office on Latin America, a research organization that defends human rights.
“The likelihood of the Trump administration’s exit threatening tariffs again was low, so there was an incentive for Mexico to return to its default state of low seizures,” said Adam Isacson, a border security expert at The Washington Office on Latin America .
The Biden government’s call to do more against migration has put Mexico in a difficult position. While Trump was heavily arming Mexico to militarize the border, some Mexican officials argue that his strict policies may at times have helped to ease his burden, preventing migrants from trying to make the journey north.
Biden is less likely to resort to tariff threats to get what he wants, say officials and analysts. But now Mexico is being asked to hold the line against a sudden increase in migrants – while the Biden government signals that the United States is more receptive to migrants.
“They look like the good guys and the Mexicans look like the bad guys,” said Cris Ramón, immigration consultant from Washington, DC
“All positive humanitarian policies are being made by the Biden government.” Ramón added, “and then Mexicans get the dirty work.”
Mr. López Obrador is also trying to find a way to increase the capacity to shelter migrants in shelters, which are exploding at the seams. In a note on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was “working with Mexico to increase its capacity to receive expelled families”.
A Mexican law that came into force in January prohibits authorities from keeping families and migrant children in detention centers, and the lack of space in shelters has become a major problem.
“The shelters are on the verge of collapse,” said Enrique Valenzuela, chief coordinator of the Chihuahua state government’s migration efforts.
Local authorities in Chihuahua and shelter operators say coordination between Mexican and American authorities has failed. During the last years of the Trump administration, American officials notified their Mexican colleagues before expelling migrants across the border and would orchestrate the crossings at a handful of well-equipped border checkpoints, they say.
According to them, under the Biden administration, Customs and Border Patrol agents now deposit migrants at some of the most obscure and understaffed control points, leaving their Mexican counterparts confused when they discover dozens of migrants from the United States.
Local government officials in Ciudad Juárez and shelter operators say Mexico is dialing operations to capture and deport migrants along the northern border. Almost daily, two of them said, Mexican authorities are stopping vans full of families and pickup trucks that transport cattle – along with migrants crouched on the ground to avoid being detected.
Part of the reason Mexico is willing to keep cracking down is that, despite being a country that has long been sending people north, there is a lot of resentment towards Central American migrants.
“The level of negative attitudes we have towards migrant flows has increased, so there will be no political cost” for López Obrador, said Tonatiuh Guillén, who headed Mexico’s National Migration Institute in the first half of 2019. “But with Trump , we didn’t negotiate anything – we gave them a lot and they didn’t give us anything in return, ”he added, arguing that the strategy should be different with Biden.
Despite public tensions with Mexico under Trump, Mr. López Obrador has been cautious with the Biden government, concerned that he may be more willing to interfere with internal issues such as labor rights or the environment.
Instead, several Mexican officials say, his government pressured the United States to stop Central American migration, sending humanitarian aid to Honduras and Guatemala after two hurricanes that devastated those countries and, many experts believe, forced even more people to migrate. .
Mexican authorities have also asked the United States to send more Hondurans and Guatemalans detained in the United States directly to their countries of origin, instead of releasing them to Mexico, making it even more difficult to try to cross the border again.
While the migration negotiations may be on a separate path from Mexico’s request for surplus vaccines from the United States, their need in Mexico is clear.
About 200,000 people died in Mexico from the virus – the third highest number of deaths in the world – and the country has been relatively slow to vaccinate its population. This poses a potential political risk for López Obrador, whose party is heading for crucial elections in June that will determine whether the president will remain in control of the legislature.
“Mexico needs US cooperation to jump-start its economy and get vaccines to get out of the health crisis,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. “So there is room for both countries to reach agreements based on aligned interests, rather than open threats.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Michael D. Shear and Jim Tankersley contributed reporting from Washington, DC