Mexico’s president signals his country might take MORE than 30,000 migrants each month from US, and White House says it’s own offer isn’t ‘fixed’: Biden spends an hour in The Beast with López Obrador after announcing policy to send border crossers south
- Biden and Lopez Obrador rode together after Biden landed Sunday
- ‘The numbers may be increased,’ Lopez Obrador said
- White House announced plan for migrants from Venezuela and others to apply
- The 30,000 monthly number also could be expanded
The White House on Monday indicated that a plan to take in 30,000 additional legal migrants each month wasn’t a ‘fixed number’ – after the president of Mexico signaled his country might be willing to take more border crossers than announced previously that the US plans to send back.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke to reporters Monday after the Biden Administration announced a plan to accept 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti who apply for asylum online.
‘We are in the early days of the implementation of that, and we will see how that goes and then make determinations about where to take the next step. So I don’t think we have a fixed number in mind,’ White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters from the president’s luxury hotel in Mexico City, hours after Biden landed here.
He was asked about the Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s own statement earlier that Mexico might take more than 30,000 migrants from the U.S. than previously indicated.
President Joe Biden met Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Monday night. The two men shared an hour-long ride into town
‘We don’t want to anticipate things, but this is part of what we are going to talk about at the summit,’ López Obrador said. ‘We support this type of measures, to give people options, alternatives,” he continued, adding that ‘the numbers may be increased.’
For his part, Sullivan said the numbers, announced by the White House last week, had been an ‘iterative process.’
The concept is to have the U.S. encourage people from the countries to apply for asylum online, while those who appear at the southern border would be sent back.
Lopez Obrador indicated openness to accepting more than 30,000 migrants per month to be sent back from north of the border.
Migrants stand behind barbed wire to keep them from crossing into El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday. The White House wants people to apply for asylum online
The U.S. plans to send about 30,000 migrants a month back to Mexico, according to a plan announced before Biden’s trip
Long road: Biden and the Mexican president rode together for an hour in ‘the Beast’
He spoke of how the administration began the program for those fleeing oppression in Venezuala, then extended it to Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians.
Biden landed Sunday at at the new Felipe Angeles International Airport, a pet project of the president, although it has few flights and had issues with running water.
That subjected Biden, who is accustomed to zipping through downtown areas, to a nearly hour-long ride to his hotel. But he was accompanied by the president for the hour-long ride in ‘the Beast,’ Biden’s presidential limo.
That constituted Biden’s biggest chunk of diplomacy yet. He doesn’t have any public events until after 4 pm local time, although he was to get his presidential daily brief.
Sullivan indicated the limo ride was useful, but wouldn’t disclose details.
‘Yesterday, he had the opportunity to ride with President Lopez Obrador from the airport back into town, which gave them the chance to just have a one on one chat. Kind of how they’re seeing the world right now – what’s on their minds. I think they both got a lot out of it,’ he said.
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