High-ranking US officials travel to Mexico to address immigration challenges and opioid crisis

Starting Monday, Mexico City will host meetings between high-ranking Mexican, US and Canadian officials seeking to focus on “shared efforts” to combat the opioid crisis and cooperation to address the regional migration challenge, the White House announced.

Meetings are scheduled through Tuesday. The US National Security Adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall, will lead the US delegation that will focus on “strengthening the initiatives” that her government has launched “to address the humanitarian situation caused by migratory flows on our shared border and in the region.”

Sherwood-Randall participated in a meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on May 2, which resulted in announcements on immigration that included increased joint actions to counter human trafficking.

Among the US priorities, they also highlighted “continuing initiatives to increase legal pathways (migration) to the US, and taking steps to modernize and secure our shared border.”

“Under the leadership of President Biden, we have strengthened our cooperation with Mexico and Canada on migration. As a result, we have implemented innovative approaches to address the challenges of irregular migration, and they have had a measurable impact on migration in the region,” the White House said in written statements.

On the other hand, the administration of President Joe Biden announced that at the meeting they will “deepen” the association between the three countries “to fight the deadly scourge” represented by the opioid crisis.

In USAsynthetic drugs claimed the lives of about 110,000 people in 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Among the actions that they seek to achieve is to intensify and expand the persecution of drug traffickers, the dismantling of criminal networks and the interruption of the trafficking of firearms to Mexico “that the cartels use to fuel their violence.”

The three countries also seek to attack the supply of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit fentanyl and “prevent the trafficking of drugs, firearms, and people across our shared border.”

Sherwood-Randall will be joined by other officials such as State Department Assistant Secretary for Administration and Resources Rich Verma, Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Homeland Security Acting Assistant Secretary Kristie Canegallo, and White House Senior Advisor to the Office of National Drug Control Policy Kemp Chester.

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