Mexico President says US needs 600,000 more migrant workers per year

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on February 27 said that he would press for a deal to get legal guarantees for workers from Mexico and Central America when he speaks with his US counterpart Joe Biden. While speaking at a public event, Lopez estimated that the US needs another 600,000 to 800,000 workers per year. He added that it is better to manage the migration flow, legalising it to provide guarantees to workers, so they don’t risk their lives, so their human rights are protected. 

It is worth noting that the Mexican and the US leader are expected to discuss migration and economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic in a virtual meeting on March 1. Meanwhile, the processing of asylum seekers waiting to enter the US expanded to a third border crossing. A week after processing began of the first group of migrants in Tijuana under the program known as "Remain in Mexico", the first migrants began crossing from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas.

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Biden to mitigate the crisis 

US President Joe Biden's new immigration reforms are a welcome step for thousands of asylum seekers from Central America who were earlier being sent back through the border under Trump's "Remain in Mexico" program. Asylum seekers were forced to stay south of the border while their cases were being resolved under the previous administration. The Biden administration, however, had announced that it would slowly start processing the approximately 25,000 asylum seekers who were forced to wait out for their process in Mexico under Trump's administration. Other migrants are still waiting for their turn to enter the US. 

Meanwhile, soon after taking office, Biden vowed to mitigate the harshness meted out to migrants and asylum seekers from Central America. Last month, the American leader talked to his Mexican counterpart where he promised to establish a more humanitarian migration system and undo Trump’s moves including his ambitious Border Wall. Biden is working on his campaign promise as he had told Americans, "It is a moral failing and a national shame when a father and his baby daughter drown seeking our shores. When children are locked away in overcrowded detention centres and the government seeks to keep them there indefinitely”. 

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