Report: AMLO Using Caravans as Leverage As He Offers to Help Biden Lobby U.S. Congress to Legalize Illegals

Central American migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, move on the
Moises Castillo/AP
Edwin Mora

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has promised to help win amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants in the United States while reportedly using migrant caravans to pressure White House officials.

Some immigration experts suggested last week that the Mexican government is using the caravans as “leverage” with U.S. President Joe Biden’s team, currently facing strong political headwinds driven by sinking approval ratings, largely over its handling of immigration issues.

As Breitbart News reported last month, Mexico has leverage in negotiations with the Biden administration in part because President Joe Biden’s border officials at the Department of Homeland Security favor migration and are deeply reluctant to physically stop migrants.

The U.S. leader “has a commitment to regularize the status of 11 million [illegal] immigrants [in the United States],” the Mexican president declared in a video message.

“We are going to help so that the United States Congress backs President Biden,” AMLO added in the video disseminated on social media last Tuesday, noting that amnesty would require the approval of U.S. lawmakers.

The 11 million figure for illegal aliens in the U.S. is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimate from before 2010. It is unclear exactly how many illegal aliens reside in the United States. Estimates vary, with some analysts placing the number as high as 30 million.

Moreover, AMLO proclaimed that he would urge the U.S. not to mistreat migrants from Mexico and beyond.

Lopez Obrador offered assistance in lobbying the American Congress to legalize foreigners, many of them Mexicans, who broke U.S. immigration laws. Mexico plays a crucial role in controlling the flow of U.S.-bound migrants.

Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told abc27’s “Border Report” last Thursday:

It seems to me that Mexico is using the caravans as leverage with the United States. Otherwise, the 18,000 Haitians that made it to Del Rio, Texas, would not have made it that far. They were allowed to transit through Mexico and make it to the border.

…

Every time a caravan comes to the border, it creates a political problem for the Biden administration. Not only do they have to deal with the asylum-seekers, but it also gives political gunpowder to Biden’s critics in the GOP and states like Texas to portray his policies as failed policies.

“Border Report” noted:

Lopez Obrador is pushing for the U.S. to ramp up worker visas for Mexicans, many of whom are already trying to cross the border by any means available after being displaced by narco-violence in the countryside in states like Michoacan, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Durango, and others. AMLO, as Lopez Obrador is known, also wants the U.S. to “invest” in economic development in Southern Mexico and Central America.

The Mexican government and the White House did not respond to Breitbart News’s multiple requests for comments.

After clearing a makeshift camp in Del Rio that housed thousands of mainly Haitian migrants back in September, the Biden administration drew the rebuke of critics at home and abroad.

Mexico released a substantial portion of the 30,000 predominantly Haitian migrants who ultimately passed through Del Rio en masse, leading to the humanitarian crisis at the Del Rio encampment that triggered a barrage of bipartisan criticism in the U.S. and infighting-related defections from high-ranking political appointees who disagreed with the Biden administration’s handling of the situation.

According to Todd Bensman from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), secret negotiations between Mexico and the White house jumpstarted by the Del Rio disaster prompted the AMLO government to agree to slow and regulate the flow of migrants heading to the U.S. border.

Behind closed doors, Biden officials likely forced the Mexican government to order a sharp about-face with a series of strict immigration enforcement operations targeting the migrants heading to Del Rio, Bensman told Breitbart News in early October, noting that the U.S. government was not interested in stopping illegal immigration altogether, just large groups from crossing the border all at once and overwhelming American authorities.

Official data from the AMLO government shows that Mexican immigration authorities largely focus on cracking down on migrants from Haiti and Central America’s Northern Triangle (NT) region, suggesting that Mexican nationals are granted free rein at sneaking into the U.S.

Mexico and the NT region comprised of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador remain the top drivers of migration flows into the U.S.

President Biden’s poll rating on immigration has slipped, mainly after U.S. authorities cleared the Del Rio camp. His approval ratings have plummeted even among independent voters who helped him defeat his predecessor a year ago, a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll revealed early this month. The poll showed Biden’s overall approval rating has sunk to 38 percent.

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