Blinken to meet President Lopez-Obrador during visit to Mexico City: US Official

Washington [US], October 8 (ANI/Sputnik): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during a visit to Mexico City on Friday (local time), a senior Biden administration official said during a conference call.
“We look forward to discussions with our Mexican counterparts during the trip on an updated security framework to meet today’s challenges and ways to reinvigorate security cooperation that will be called the US-Mexico bicentennial framework for security, public health and safe communities,” the official said on Thursday. “Secretary Blinken will meet with President Lopez Obrador and Secretary [Marcelo] Ebrard.”
Blinken will be joined by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols and National Security Council Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere Juan Gonzalez, the official said.
The US and Mexican delegations will discuss enhancing cooperation to disrupt drug cartel groups operating in Mexico and addressing human smuggling on the US southern border, the official said.
The US delegation will also consult with their Mexican counterparts on the plans to reinstate the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy as ordered by a court recently, the official added.
The trip takes place amid a record number of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States via the border with Mexico. Some 15,000 asylum-seeking migrants, mostly from Haiti, were apprehended in Del Rio, Texas, last month. Overall, more than 1.5 million migrants have been apprehended on the US-Mexico border since October 2020. (ANI/Sputnik)