Mexico and the United States will hold presidential elections in the same calendar year for the first time in more than 20 years. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s crackdown on immigration is less about securing the border and more about ensuring electoral victory for U.S. President Joe Biden and his ruling Morena party. may be related to. Immigration moratorium designed to secure US Democratic victory in November and AMLO Morena party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory in June will leave borders wide open for years to come There is a possibility that
A victory for Mr. Sheinbaum and President Biden in near-simultaneous elections in 2024 would also benefit violent Mexican cartels that benefit from both countries’ lax national security arrangements. A victory for Mr. Sheinbaum, who shares AMLO’s position of dealing with Mexican cartels with “hugs, not bullets,” when combined with Mr. Biden’s victory, means the cartels will continue to flood the United States with fentanyl and other drugs. ability is likely to continue.
Mr. Sheinbaum, who maintains a significant lead in Mexico’s latest polls, shares AMLO’s lax stance on immigration and calls for no serious solutions to the cartel violence plaguing most Mexican states. No measures have been proposed. A temporary reduction in immigration from the border, although contrary to previous actions in Mexico, could be the small sacrifice needed for Mexico’s Morena party and the U.S. Democratic Party to win this year.
The effects of the low-profile Biden-AMLO border plan are being felt in Texas border cities. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say apprehension along the Texas border decreased by 60 percent between December and February. As reported by Breitbart Texas, the sudden drop in migrant arrivals along the Texas-Mexico border began shortly after a series of meetings between Biden and AMLO in late December, followed by A meeting between Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Secretary of Homeland Security followed. Shortly after that, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Within a short period of time, migrants in northern border cities were rapidly rounded up due to the large-scale deployment of the Mexican National Guard and the influx of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute personnel. The migrants traveled by plane and bus from Mexican border cities near Texas to cities in southern Mexico, and some arrived in their home countries.
On the U.S. side of Texas, the Biden administration has quietly begun expediting the adjudication of asylum cases, prioritizing recently arrived immigrants to ensure speedy deportation from the United States. Measures like Mr. Trump’s have significantly reduced the number of immigrants released into the United States to await adjudication of their asylum cases.
The sudden desire by the Biden and AMLO administrations to curb illegal immigration is likely to drive away potential voters’ immigration by eliminating the sight of thousands of migrants crossing the border each day in Texas, witnessed as recently as December. The purpose may be to draw attention away from the issue. A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released in January found that an overwhelming majority of likely voters cited curbing inflation and immigration as their top concerns, with 35% of respondents citing immigration as their top concern. 32% of respondents cited inflation as a concern.
The immigration issue could also concern the more than 12 million U.S. residents currently eligible to vote by mail in June’s Mexican presidential election. The AMLO government has encouraged foreign nationals living in the United States to exercise their right to vote through a messaging campaign run by consulates across the southwest border. In the last presidential election, the number of participants in this category of voters was less than 100,000, but AMLO and members of his Morena party hope to exceed this number in 2024.
If Mr. Sheinbaum maintains his lead and succeeds in replacing AMLO after the June election, Mr. Sheinbaum stands to make history. She will be the first woman to serve as president in Mexico and North America. Sheinbaum, who recently became Mexico City’s executive secretary (a position equivalent to a state governor), is the first woman to hold that position. As an environmental engineer with her Ph.D. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Sheinbaum has been advocating for a sustainable energy transformation in Mexico.
Like AMLO, Sheinbaum’s political leanings are liberal, including the belief that government should provide or promote citizens’ rights to education, housing, employment, and health care. He has so far remained silent about his differing positions on energy policy and climate change, which are more liberal than the current ruling party. In 2022, Mr. Sheinbaum became the first Mexico City government secretary to march in Mexico City’s LGBTQ Pride Parade.
Victory in June is far from a deal, even though the latest polls in Mexico show Mr. Sheinbaum with a significant lead. In Mexican elections, the winner of the presidential election is declared the candidate with the highest total popular vote among the candidates seeking election. When multiple parties compete, a candidate with less than a clear majority can win the presidential seat. In the 2012 Mexican elections, PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto secured the presidency with only 39 percent of the popular vote, as the number of opposition candidates divided the overall vote.
In another development that could signal some embarrassment for Mr. Sheinbaum’s ruling party, nearly 100,000 people protested against AMLO’s government in Mexico City on Sunday. The protests, organized by opposition parties, called for fair elections, denounced the cartel violence plaguing Mexico and criticized massive corruption in the country.
The Biden/AMLO plan to reduce immigration may be too little, too late to secure a Democratic victory. A February Monmouth University poll found that 76% of Americans disapproved of Biden’s immigration record, while only 26% approved.
randy clark He is a 32-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as Division Chief of Law Enforcement Operations and directed operations for nine Border Patrol stations within the Del Rio, Texas area. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
