Important meeting between Mexican President and President Joe Biden

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On Tuesday, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he had no differences with the President of the United States Joe Biden. He delivered his words in their first bilateral meeting a day earlier and that his American counterpart was open to exploring his proposals on a temporary worker program and helping Mexico obtain more vaccine. Obrador also characterized the meeting as friendly, respectful, and with a lot of emphasis on cooperation for development”. He said he didn’t come away with a deal for the US to help Mexico obtain more COVID-19 vaccine. Obrador said, “Teams from both countries are going to explore all possibilities for cooperation in this area to see what is possible and when”. The White House officials reiterated that Biden remained focused on first vaccinating US citizens before turning his attention to assisting other nations.

López Obrador acknowledged Biden may have to first vaccinate most of the US population, but said there was openness to the subject. There were questions ahead of the meeting about how the two leaders would get along. It is noteworthy that Obrador had a surprisingly warm relationship with former President Donald Trump that revolved almost exclusively around Mexico’s efforts to stop migrants from reaching the US border. But, on Tuesday, he said there was a lot of laughter in the one hour and 15-minute conversation with Biden that covered nearly all of the main issues in the bilateral relationship. Obrador also said, “There were not any differences, I’m telling you categorically, not a single one”.

Obrador said he proposed the US analyze how many workers its economy requires and then design a plan for temporary worker visas that would allow Mexicans and Central Americans to migrate legally for work. He has floated a scale of 600,000 to 800,000 Mexican and Central American workers annually. It could be modeled on the original Bracero program. The program allowed Mexicans to work temporarily in the United States to fill labor shortages during World War II and for a couple of decades after the war. Biden and López Obrador have both stressed the importance of developing northern Central America and southern Mexico to address migration. He said Biden repeated his proposal to destine $4 billion for that purpose in the region.