Border Crises (Part 2): Mexico is the solution to the border crisis

Mexico is the solution to the border crisis because it is the primary cause of it – with the complicity of the Biden administration.

Let us be clear.  Mexico could stop the flow of migrant crossing the border if it wanted to do so.  First of all, they are allowing all those people to enter Mexico illegally in the first place.  The Mexican government is enabling – and even supporting — the migrants’ travel through the country.

Mexico is not acting against the drug cartelians profitable human trafficking business.  It is a multi-billion-dollar business that is a significant part of the Mexican economy.  It is one of the reasons for Mexico’s unwillingness to shut it down.

For the first three years of his tenure in office, Biden has done nothing to encourage or pressure Mexico to reduce the numbers of migrants arriving at the United States border.  With the crisis reaching epic proportions – and the growing public awareness of the magnitude of the crisis – the issue is becoming a major reelection liability for Biden.  Political reality is forcing him to take some action – or at least appear to be taking some action.

He has recently sent his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to engage in “talks” with Mexican President Andrés Obrador.  There were no articulated “deliverables” (diplomat talk for goals) and no meaningful results.  It was a symbolic gesture designed to appear to future voters that Biden was paying attention to the issue.

Everyone talks about the complexity of solving the border problem.  That is nothing more than an excuse for doing nothing.  Border policy is being handled as a partisan political issue rather than a national policy issue.  As long as Biden & Co. have seen political benefits from an open border policy, the flow of migrants has been allowed to continue unabated.

Unfortunately for Biden and the Democrats, the crisis at the southern border has become so serious that their policy of inaction is starting to create a political liability.  In addition to the symbolic visit by Blinken and Sullivan, Biden has ordered the construction of additional wall – something he firmly said he would not do during the campaign, and when he ordered construction stopped even though unconstructed portions of the wall were fabricated and paid for.

But what can Biden do to pressure Mexico to take serious and effective measures to stop the flow of migrants?  The answer is a lot, and that is why Biden’s inaction is so egregious.  Biden could:

1. Reinstate a Title 42-style program to limit the number of people crossing the border.  It was imposed by President Trump to limit illegal crossing as an anti-Covid measure.  Biden allowed it to lapse in 2023, which led to the recent surge in border crossings.  Between 2020 and 2023, more than 2.8 million potential border crossers were expelled at the border.
2. Re-impose Trump’s tariffs on Mexico until there was serious action to cut down on the caravans passing through the country.  The Trump strategy was to impose a high cost on Mexico to undercut the billions of dollars the country was receiving from the cartels’ enterprises.
3. Re-negotiate Trump’s policy of making migrants wait in Mexico while their asylum requests are being adjudicated.
4. Dispel border crossers under the legal requirement that they seek asylum in the first nation they enter.
5. Pressure Mexico to close its borders to those entering the country for the sole purpose of reaching the United States.
6. Demand that Mexico enact laws making it illegal to engage in transportation services for migrants.  Migrants riding trains can be removed by police.
7. Mexico, along with America, can demand that asylum seekers make applications at the U.S. embassy in their home countries.

The United States has enormous leverage over Mexico regarding the border issue. The goal of a proper immigration policy should not be the modest reduction in the number of illegal border crossers.  It should be to essentially eliminate the problem.  Mexico can play an important role in making that happen. 

Why has Biden not undertaken policies that can reduce the problem of illegal border crossers?  Because he does not want to do so … period.

So, there ‘tis.