AMLO hails Biden for opening ‘legal pathways’ for migrants

SAN FRANCISCO — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gushed Friday that President Biden was “humane” and “extraordinary” for opening new “legal pathways” for immigration — as the cost of hosting migrants has forced New York City to announce massive cuts to city services like education, sanitation and policing.

“We wish to thank President Biden because he is the first president in recent times to be opening legal pathways for migration,” the Mexican leader, known by his initials AMLO, said during a meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference.

“It’s a humane way to address the migratory phenomenon,” he added.

“And I would also like to express and to say that he is the first president in the United States in recent times who has not built walls,” AMLO raved — invoking outdated information, as Biden’s administration in fact authorized 20 miles of new walling in South Texas last month after previously closing wall gaps near Yuma, Arizona.

“We need to continue to support one another so migration is an option and not enforced. We wish to assist the people in their countries of origin when they are forced to migrate,” the Mexican president continued

“You have an extraordinary president in the United States — a man with convictions, a good man,” he concluded.

AMLO previously credited Biden in early 2021 with inspiring the rush to the border in his first year in office, which has continued without slowing in subsequent months.

“They see [Biden] as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States,” he said two months after Biden took office.

The reference to “legal pathways” described Biden’s “parole” program launched in January to allow a combined 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to enter the US each month to await later rulings on asylum claims.

In the first six months, nearly 160,000 migrants used the process, which requires background checks and a US sponsor, potentially reducing their need for public assistance.

The parole program, which congressional Republicans contend exceeds Biden’s legal authority, was launched as Biden administration officials increasingly allowed people who illegally crossed the US-Mexico border into the country to await asylum verdicts in badly backlogged proceedings.

So far, the new legal pathways haven’t prevented illegal border crossings from continuing to set highs — with a record-breaking 2.48 million apprehensions in fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30 — a figure that doesn’t include the migrants who eluded authorities.

Biden and AMLO were expected to discuss other issues Friday, including the smuggling of fentanyl through Mexico and into the US.

Fentanyl has killed roughly 200,000 Americans since Biden took office and the US leader has taken heat from Republicans for not doing more to halt the drug’s export from China and its transit across the US-Mexico border.

Biden met Wednesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said afterward that Xi had agreed to curb the export of the potent synthetic opioid to the Americas.

In his own introductory remarks to AMLO, Biden said he was eager to share what Xi said about the drug.

“When we talk privately, I want to tell you about my great conversation with Xi Jinping on that issue,” the American president said.

AMLO told Biden that “we’re fully aware of the damage [fentanyl] poses to the United States youth” and “we are sincerely committed to continue to assist at our fullest capacity to prevent drug trafficking, namely the entrance of fentanyl and other chemical precursors.”