Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is blaming President Biden for the migrant surge, which the White House still refuses to call a “crisis.”
Biden and his policies have set “expectations” that migrants will be let in, the center-left populist president told reporters Tuesday, the New York Post reported.
“Expectations were created that with the government of President Biden there would be a better treatment of migrants,” he said. “And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so.”
Earlier this month, as WND reported, López Obrador said Central American nations “see Biden as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported Wednesday the Biden administration ignored the warnings of Customs and Border Protection officials during the presidential transition, according to former acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf.
However, on his first day in office, Biden began repealing Trump policies, including border wall construction and remain-in-Mexico while pausing deportations for 100 days.
CBP reported its agents encountered more than 100,000 migrants at the southern border in February. Among them were 9,000 unaccompanied minors, which the Biden administration is allowing to enter the country and be matched with a sponsor. More than 10,000 minors are now in custody and another 5,000 are in CBP facilities.
Officials say many families seeking asylum are sending their minor children to the border alone, believing it’s their best opportunity to be settled in the U.S.
The Biden administration, however, blames the Trump administration for the breakdown at the border.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the sitution “is difficult because the entire system was dismantled by the prior administration.”
“There was a system in place in both Republican and Democratic administrations, that was torn down during the Trump administration, and that is why the challenge is more acute than it ever has been before,” he said.
“We are rebuilding the orderly systems that the Trump administration tore down to avoid the need for these children to actually take the perilous journey,” Mayorkas said.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Mayorkas said the Trump administration dismantled a “safe and orderly immigration system.”
‘Incentivize migration’
Some Democratic lawmakers, particularly in border districts, also have blamed Biden for the surge. And earlier this month, Reuters reported Mexican leaders feared the Biden administration is stoking illegal immigration and creating business for organized crime.
Internal assessments, based on testimonies and intelligence gathering, state that amid U.S. measures that “incentivize migration,” Mexican gangs are diversifying methods of smuggling and winning clients.
A Mexican official familiar with migration developments who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said organized crime began changing its methods “from the day Biden took office” and now exhibit “unprecedented” levels of sophistication.
Assessments obtained by Reuters show that includes “briefing clients on the latest immigration rules, using technology to outfox authorities and disguising smuggling operations as travel agencies.”
“Migrants have become a commodity,” the official said, arguing they were now as valuable as drugs for the gangs. “But if a packet of drugs is lost in the sea, it’s gone. If migrants are lost, it’s human beings we’re talking about.”
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