Cancun Travel

• Since the expiration of Title 42, migrant encounters at the border decreased 50 percent between May and June. These are the lowest levels since 2021.
• An international crossing point will be set up in southern Mexico to provide shelter and employment services to people who remained in the country after Title 42 ended.
• The U.S. government will contribute $40 million to the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro (Youths Building the Future) programs in El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Cuba and Ecuador.

At the morning press conference led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena explained the Mexican government’s migration strategy and the progress made at the bilateral Mexico-US meeting and the second North America Trilateral Fentanyl Committee meeting.

The Foreign Secretary said, “Mexico is very committed to a migration strategy that is comprehensive, orderly and, first and foremost, safe, regular and humane.” At the President’s instructions, she will coordinate the actions of the Security Cabinet, the Attorney General’s Office, Amexcid and the National Institute of Migration, to carry out an intersectoral strategy that addresses the structural causes of migration.

“This is really about addressing the entire migration cycle and to do so, first of all, by being very careful to protect human rights at all stages of the cycle. I believe it essential […] to address the causes: Why do people migrate? How can we make migration an option and not an obligation?”

The Secretary emphasized the importance of people being able to return in a dignified manner, and to improve the international protection and refugee systems. “We will coordinate with the United Nations funds and programs, […] especially with the International Organization for Migration and the Refugee Agency,” she said.

Secretary Bárcena said that the United States and Mexico have created new pathways for migration and labor mobility, and that “since the end of Title 42 we have seen migrant encounters at the border decrease by 50 percent between May and June […] the number of Mexicans has decreased the most, and other nationalities the least… these are the lowest figures since 2021.”

She said that two new pathways for entering the United States legally have been negotiated. “One is with humanitarian permits: 166,000 people have entered with humanitarian permits, and 106,000 through the CBP One program […] so the number of people who have already managed to enter the United States through regular pathways is 272,000.” This is an important achievement of the Mexico-United States Bicentennial Framework.

The Foreign Secretary said Mexico is working on how to install an international crossing point in the south of the country that will provide shelter and employment options for migrants, to “connect the migrants with the large-scale projects being carried out in the south-southeast […] This will be for the people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela who stayed in the country after the end of Title 42 […] We will continue exploring other orderly and safe ways to assist people who are not currently eligible, in order to prevent the migrants from having to make the painful journey north,” as instructed by President López Obrador.

She also reported that the U.S. Government would provide $40 million to the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro (Youths Building the Future) programs in El Salvador and Honduras, and particularly in Belize, Guatemala, Cuba and Ecuador. “This is the first time that the United States is really going to contribute a fund with the characteristics we are interested in, that reaches the communities and goes directly to the beneficiaries. We had not been able to do that before,” she said.

On another issue, the Foreign Secretary addressed the installation of buoys in the Rio Grande by the Texas state government. She said that the Foreign Ministry’s International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) had conducted a survey of the area and found embankments being built that obstruct and deflect the flow of the river, shipping containers that had been placed within the flood zone, and concertina wire barriers to block crossings, in addition to the floating plastic buoys.

This is taking place in an area of 305 meters, of which 230 are Mexican territory. She said that Mexico has sent two diplomatic notes arguing that the 1994 and 1970 treaties are being violated. She said, “President Joe Biden, at the request of President López Obrador, is filing a complaint. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas […] The federal government has decided to support Mexico in relation to this action, which is a very unilateral action by a U.S. state.”

The Secretary also discussed the issue of arms trafficking. “Mexico has made an enormous effort to seize arms […] 70,571 arms have been seized by the three levels of government.” She said that, at the [latest] binational meeting, the U.S. acknowledged this very serious problem. The U.S. is the main producer of weapons in the world. It is very important to have its support in stopping the flow, since this firepower is what strengthens the cartels.

“For the first time in the history of our binational relationship, the United States has shared information with us about what they are doing […] they have seized 2,955 guns. Of course, this doesn’t compare to our 70,000, but … there is a specific operation, Southbound. This is their main initiative, and it is already making progress… The most important thing is that we have a mechanism to exchange information and see how we are making progress with this serious problem.”

She reported that the Mexican Defense Ministry (Sedena) is monitoring the states where these guns are found in Mexico, in order to determine the actions to take to confiscate them.

Finally, Foreign Secretary Bárcena announced that the Mexican Government made four proposals to the U.S. Government:

“First, to increase gun seizures because, according to Sedena’s numbers, 200,000 guns enter the country every year, so we need the United States to help us seize them at the border.”

Second, to increase the supervision of gun fairs and those who grant gun licenses, which are approximately 133,000 stores. “What we want is for them to at least check to see if they have licenses, if they are operating legally.”

Third, to revoke the licenses of the stores that are selling guns to the cartels. And fourth: to increase the arrests of gun trafficking organizations and not just to focus on middlemen. She concluded by saying, “The proposals were very well received.”