Mexican president will ask Kamala Harris to reopen the southern border 'completely' and send 3.5 million vaccines amid a surge in infections in migrants crossing the Rio Grande
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador plans to urge Vice President Kamala Harris to completely reopen the border between Mexico and the U.S. during their phone call Monday.
'It must be said that the border is open, not completely, but it has never been completely closed,' Lopez Obrador said during a Monday press conference in Ciudad Juarez, which is south of El Paso, Texas. 'However, we need to open this one, and it is an issue that we are going to discuss today.'
Lopez Obrador revealed he will speak with Harris later on Monday. The vice president is expected to release a readout of the call after it concludes.
'I have a call today with Vice President Kamala Harris,' Lopez Obrador said at his press conference Monday.
'We are going to give continuity to the agenda that we have in common on migration issues, of course, the issue of opening the border, the support that they have been giving us, and that we thank you very much for having enough vaccines in our country,' he continued.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday that he will urge the U.S. to completely reopen its southern border with Mexico
Lopez Obrador and Vice President Kamala Harris will speak by phone on Monday
The call will come amid a surging border crisis and will see Lopez Obrador ask the U.S. to donate 35 million more vaccines doses to Mexico. Migrants caught crossing are loaded into a CBP van in Sunland Park, New Mexico on July 22, 2021
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the Title 42 rule last week, which allows migrants to be expelled from the U.S. due to COVID-19 concerns.
Lopez Obrador's preview that he will ask for the border to reopen comes amid a prevailing and escalating southern border crisis.
Multiple reports reveal the immigration enforcement encountered 210,000 migrants at the southern border in July – the biggest number, by far, since the historic spike started in March.
Harris was tasked by President Joe Biden earlier this year with leading the administration's response to the crisis by addressing 'root causes' that lead to mass migration in Central American countries.
She has also been in contact with Lopez Obrador to discuss cooperation at the U.S.-Mexico border to curb the stream of illegal immigration during the pandemic and as American agencies become overwhelmed.
Over the weekend, Lopez Obrador revealed that he will talk to Harris about the U.S. donating more COVID-19 vaccines to Mexico.
'We're going to talk on Monday in order to keep working on our joint agenda of collaboration,' the Mexican president said during a speech over the weekend at a new national guard installation in Ciudad Juarez, a border city with Texas.
He said that he will ask Harris for a shipment of 3.5 million more coronavirus vaccine doses from the U.S.
'There are commitments for us to have more vaccines, provided by the United States government,' Lopez Obrador said in his Sunday remarks.
He thanked Washington for an earlier vaccine donation. In June, Washington donated 1.3 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The White House announced Friday that 50% of the entire U.S. population is now vaccinated against COVID-19
The seven-day rolling average of new COVID cases in the U.S. is 110,360 as of Sunday and in Mexico is upwards of 16,500.
The spike in Mexico is reaching numbers similar to their highest case rate at the height of the pandemic in January 2021.
Both the highly contagious Delta variant, first detected in India earlier this year, and the heightened number of breakthrough cases in the vaccinated are leading to the massive case spikes in the U.S. and Mexico.
The White House announced last week that 50 per cent of the total U.S. population is now fully inoculated against coronavirus.
Harris, a former senator from California, was tapped earlier this year by President Joe Biden to lead diplomatic efforts with Mexico and several Central American nations focusing on regional migration and economic development.
In June, Washington donated 1.3 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Mexico. Above a shipment of Pfizer doses are unloaded in Mexico on December 23, 2020
While her role was quickly dubbed by outsiders as 'border czar', the White House has insisted she is focused on addressing 'root causes' of migration and not on the border crisis, which sees thousands of migrants arriving each day over the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lopez Obrador on Sunday praised U.S.-Mexico relations under Biden's six-month-old administration, describing them as based on 'respect for our sovereignty and development cooperation.'
Texas officials have also pleaded with the Biden administration to direct immigration agencies to stop releasing COVID-positive migrants into their communities after being apprehended at the border.
Some cities and towns have blamed an influx in coronavirus cases to the fact unvaccinated migrants are being sent to their communities as an Alternative to Detention Program after illegally crossing into the U.S.
The U.S. vaccination rate has plateaued as hesitant communities continue to refuse to get the jab
The infection rate has spiked to winter levels as the Delta variant surges and breakthrough cases in vaccinated people continue to emerge
The death rate, however, has not correlated with the massive spikes in cases