Mexico City, June 27 (EFE).- The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked “not to blame Mexico” for migration in the debate that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and his rival will have this Thursday, former governor Donald Trump (2017-2021), stating that “there is no serious problem.”
“Let them know what the immigration situation is like today on the northern border so that the immigration issue is not used as a pretext excuse, with the desire nothing more than to blame Mexico and want to look good to the citizens of the United States, with everything respect to the two candidates,” López Obrador requested in his morning conference.
His statements come hours before the debate that CNN will broadcast, which is unprecedented because it occurs before the conventions of both parties, which make the nominations for the presidential race official, it will not be organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates and it will not have an audience.
The Mexican president anticipated that one of the central issues will be migration, but asked to consider that the arrests of migrants on the United States border with Mexico have fallen more than 72%, to 3,479 on June 25, from 12,498 on June 18. December, the highest point of last year.
“If the immigration issue is discussed, we must act objectively and with adherence to the truth. Currently there is no serious problem regarding immigration and both, former President Trump and President Biden, know that we have insisted on addressing the causes of migration and we have been doing our part,” he said.
López Obrador argued that migration has decreased because his government has reached agreements with countries of origin such as Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti.
He also asserted that the migration of Mexicans has fallen because the United States has an unemployment rate of 3.9% and Mexico has an unemployment rate of 2.7%, according to their data, so “there are not so many going anymore.”
“Mexico collaborates because we want to have a good neighborly relationship with the United States and we have achieved it, but, as the debates come, there is a temptation to blame, but this is the reality,” he said.
The meeting will take place just over four months before the United States elections, in which migration on the border with Mexico will be a central issue and whose winner will deal with the next Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who will take office on October 1 with the promise to continue López Obrador’s policies.
“It is very important to see the debate, although it is about the United States, they are our neighbors, 40 million Mexicans live in the United States, we are the main trading partners in the world, we share many kilometers of border,” he concluded.
