() — US First Lady Jill Biden will join President Joe Biden on his trip to Mexico City next week, according to the White House.
Biden has a “substantial and independent program that will focus on our shared cultural connections and his work to empower women and girls around the world,” the first lady’s press secretary Vanessa Valdivia told on Saturday.
The announcement comes ahead of the president’s first visit to Mexico since taking office, where he will discuss immigration issues with the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City.
US First Lady Jill Biden at the White House on November 30, 2022. Credit: Graeme Sloan/Sipa/AP
Along the way, Biden plans visit the US southern border on Sunday, stopping in El Paso, Texas, to meet with local officials and address border security issues. It will be his first stop at the border as president.
El Paso began to see record levels of migrant arrivals a few weeks ago, when anxiety over the scheduled end of Title 42 led thousands of migrants to turn themselves in to border authorities or cross the border illegally into the United States in a very short period of time. weather.
Title 42 allows immigration authorities to quickly return some migrants to Mexico. The measure was scheduled to be lifted last month, but a Supreme Court ruling kept the rule in place while legal challenges unfold in court.
On Thursday, Biden announced that he will expand a program to accept up to 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, along with a plan to expel as many migrants from those countries as possible who evade US laws in the southern border.
Jill Biden leaves for Mexico City on Sunday and will meet the president when he arrives after his visit to the border.
Highlights of the first lady’s solo schedule include joining local students at a Tochito NFL flag football game. On Monday, Biden will join Mexico’s first lady, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, for a “Fandango por la Lectura” at the National Palace, an event to raise awareness about the importance of reading.
On Tuesday, the two women will meet again for a conjugal lunch, along with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of the Canadian prime minister. Later, the three will tour the Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Mexica indigenous people in their capital city, Tenochtitlan, in present-day Mexico City.
Jill Biden will also participate in various events with her husband, the White House indicated.
‘s Sonnet Swire, Kevin Liptak and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.
