Top U.S. officials meet with Mexican government to discuss migrant surge

A delegation from the United States on Wednesday met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to push for stronger limits on the number of migrants reaching the countries’ shared border. The Biden administration has called on Mexico to resume deporting asylum-seekers who travel through the country to reach the border. American officials have also pushed for López Obrador to increase immigration checkpoints throughout the country and on railroads. López Obrador has said the United States should offer more aid to other Latin American countries like Venezuela and Cuba, the countries of origin for many of the illegal immigrants that travel through Mexico.

What is happening at the border? A caravan of about 6,000 migrants this week has been making its way through southern Mexico on its way to the northern border. U.S. Border Patrol agents said they arrested as many as 10,000 people per day this month who were trying to enter the country illegally. American officials have closed several crossings in three states so agents can help process and apprehend people elsewhere. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Mexican authorities worked to clear a migrant encampment across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.  

Dig deeper: Read Addie Offereins and Bethany Morawe’s report about immigrants rushing to the Arizona-Mexico border.