President Joe Biden is reportedly planning a migration swap with Mexico’s president that would provide hundreds of thousands of migrants legal entry into the United States.
The swap would expand a January border-management deal that traditionally trades 360,000 additional migrants for 360,000 deportations back into Mexico.
Any non-Mexican migrants who cross the border illegally will face a series of consequences including arrest, incarceration, deportation to Mexico, and a possible five-year ban from the U.S.
While the deal is not yet secured, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has reportedly been open to negotiations. The swap also depends on allegedly illegal parole pipelines, according to a lawsuit filed by Republican states.
According to the Post, “Mexico is the linchpin of the plan,” because it has the power to discourage the influx of migrants whom they do not want to be seen deporting.
Doris Meissner, a top immigration official from the Clinton Administration, called the policy a "game changer" for the Biden Administration.
“Authorities there have long resisted taking back U.S. deportees who are not Mexican citizens, but the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has demonstrated a broad willingness to assist Washington with border control measures, accommodations that have earned him leverage over other aspects of U.S.-Mexico relations,” the Post noted.
Mexican authorities have resisted the idea that they will become a “safe third country” that would allow the U.S. to send all asylum seekers there.
However, the Post refrains from mentioning the Mexican government’s hands-off approach to drug smuggling, which kills more than 100,000 Americans every year. Mexico is vulnerable to the U.S. because they fear that it can easily lose access to American customers.
While Trump was in office, he used that fear to force Mexican curbs on migration.