Biden arrives in Mexico for summit with López Obrador, Trudeau

One of an important diplomatic choices by President Joe Biden on the gathering this week of North American leaders might need been his alternative of airport.

Biden arrived in Mexico City on Sunday night through Mexico’s latest hub, the Felipe Angeles International Airport, a prized venture by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The hub was christened final 12 months with a lot fanfare, although it is positioned greater than an hour’s drive north of the town middle, has few flights and till just lately lacked constant consuming water.

Biden and López Obrador, whose relationship is transactional at greatest and absent the heat and camaraderie Biden has with different world leaders, shook fingers and walked collectively down an extended crimson carpet on the tarmac, flanked by troopers. The two then took the lengthy drive into the town middle collectively.

Along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who arrives on Monday, the trio will spend the subsequent two days discussing local weather change, manufacturing, commerce, the economic system and the potential world clout of a extra collaborative North America.

“This gathering will deepen our coordination and advance our shared priorities for North America,” Biden tweeted on Sunday after his arrival.

Migration may even be mentioned, however forward of the summit Biden introduced a serious U.S.-Mexico border coverage shift, with Mexico’s blessing, that can end result in the United States sending 30,000 migrants from 4 different international locations per thirty days again throughout the border. The U.S. will settle for 30,000 folks per thirty days from the 4 nations — Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela — for two years and provide the flexibility to work legally.

On Sunday, Biden’s spent roughly 4 hours in El Paso, Texas, his first journey to the border as president and the longest he is spent alongside the U.S-Mexico line. The day was extremely managed and appeared designed to showcase a clean operation to course of migrants coming into legally, weed out smuggled contraband and humanely deal with those that have entered illegally, making a counter-narrative to Republicans’ claims of a disaster scenario equal to an open border.

But it was doubtless do little to quell critics from either side, together with immigrant advocates who accuse the Democratic president of creating merciless insurance policies not not like these of his hard-line predecessor, Donald Trump, a Republican.

Biden encountered no migrants besides when his motorcade drove alongside the border and a few dozen lined up on the Ciudad Juárez facet in Mexico. His go to didn’t embody time at a Border Patrol station, the place migrants who cross illegally are arrested and held earlier than their launch.

Elsewhere in El Paso the place Biden didn’t go to, tons of of migrants had been gathered outdoors the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the place they’ve been sleeping outside and receiving three meals a day from religion teams and different humanitarian organizations.

The group of migrants had a number of pregnant ladies, together with 26-year-old Karla Sainz, who’s eight months alongside. She was touring in a small group that included her 2-year-old son, Joshua. Sainz left her three different youngsters again dwelling in Venezuela with her mom.

“I would ask President Biden to help me with a permission or something so we can work and continue,” she stated.

Noengris Garcia, additionally eight months pregnant, was touring with her husband, her teenage son and the small household canine from the tiny state of Portuguesa, Venezuela, the place she operated a meals stall.

“We don’t want to be given money or a house,” stated Garcia, 39. “We just want to work.”

Asked what he’s realized by seeing the border firsthand and talking with the officers who work alongside it, Biden stated: “They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them.”

The number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has risen dramatically throughout Biden’s first two years in workplace. There had been greater than 2.38 million stops throughout the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, the primary time the quantity topped 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take measures that might resemble these of Trump’s administration.

From Texas, Biden headed south to Mexico City. López Obrador will formally welcome Biden on the Palacio Nacional on Monday, the primary time since 2014 Mexico has hosted a U.S. president. The two will meet earlier than Trudeau joins them for dinner. Biden and Trudeau will maintain talks Tuesday, after which the three will collect for discussions.

For the U.S., the main speaking factors are migration, drug trafficking and constructing on Biden’s push on electrical autos and manufacturing. Mexico is targeted on financial integration for North America, supporting the poor in the Americas and regional relationships that put all governments on equal footing. Canada is seeking to develop on inexperienced initiatives.

While the three nations work collectively, it isn’t all rosy. The leaders of Canada and Mexico have voiced issues over Biden’s “Buy American” plan. And whereas Biden’s push towards electrical autos is a boon to each nations due to the tax credit for North American batteries, there’s concern the U.S. allies will likely be left behind.

Meantime, the U.S. and Canada accuse López Obrador of attempting to favor Mexico’s state-owned utility over energy vegetation constructed by international and personal buyers, one thing that’s forbidden underneath the three international locations’ free commerce pact.

Biden’s relationship with Trudeau is hotter, however he nonetheless hasn’t made it to Canada throughout his presidency, regardless of White House officers saying for months he deliberate to go north following a gathering in Los Angeles final fall.

López Obrador skipped that gathering as a result of Biden didn’t invite the authoritarian regimes of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. He’s additionally made no secret of his admiration for Trump. And he was one in every of solely three world leaders who didn’t acknowledge Biden’s election victory till after the formal Electoral College vote and the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol. But regardless of this, they every acknowledge the opposite’s significance.

“They are both consummate politicians,” Andrew Selee, head of the immigration think tank Migration Policy Institute in Washington, said of Biden and López Obrador. “They’re looking for what the other person needs, and they’re trying to make clear what they need. It’s very transactional. There isn’t a big vision for the relationship right now.”

For Biden, that meant flying into the brand new airport, one in every of 4 keystone initiatives López Obrador is racing to complete earlier than his time period ends subsequent 12 months, as Mexico doesn’t enable reelection. The different initiatives are an oil refinery, a vacationer practice in the Yucatan Peninsula and a practice linking Gulf coast and Pacific seaports.

The airport was anticipated to price $4.1 billion and was constructed after López Obrador canceled the partly constructed airport created by his predecessor. During development of Felipe Angeles in 2020, hundreds of mammoth skeletons had been uncovered.