After years resisting investments in border security, Mexico this week agreed to spend $1.5 billion on border infrastructure over the next two years.
“Borders that are more resilient, more efficient, and safer, will enhance our shared commerce,” said a joint statement released Tuesday by U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Lopez Obrador. “We are committed like never before to completing a multi-year joint U.S.-Mexico border infrastructure modernization effort for projects along the 2,000-mile border.”
According to the statement, there are 26 major construction and modernization projects at land ports of entry on the northern and southern border included in Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as $3.4 billion in funding. These projects are expected to create local jobs, improve security and prevent future supply chain issues.
Previously, former President Donald Trump failed to secure funding from Mexico for a border wall project, said CBS News.
“Building a wall will do little to deter criminals and cartels seeking to exploit our borders,” said Biden’s presidential campaign page. “Instead of stealing resources from schools for military children and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, Biden will direct federal resources to smart border enforcement efforts, like investments in improving screening infrastructure at our ports of entry, that will actually keep America safer.”
A report published last year by the Immigrant Defense Project’s Surveillance, Tech & Immigration Policing Project, and the Transnational Institute described “smart” border security as “expansive use of surveillance and monitoring technologies including cameras, drones, biometrics, and motion sensors.”
This report noted that smart border project supporters position these surveillance measures as a “humane alternative” to Trump’s wall project. However, its authors argued that “rather than offering a meaningful alternative to wall-building, mass detention, and mass deportation, the expansion of the policing and surveillance technology that ‘smart’ borders embody are extensions of these projects.”
In the joint statement from Biden and Obrador, the leaders said they are “taking immediate and coordinated steps to manage the flows of migrants arriving into our countries,” and to address economic and security factors driving migration as well as cooperate on programs focused on marginalized communities.
“At the same time, we will maintain strong border enforcement policies while ensuring full protection of human rights,” they said.
Part of this work includes a proposed launch of a bilateral working group on labor migration pathways and worker protections. The U.S. and Mexico also plan to provide greater worker protections and viable alternatives for migrant workers who seek access to legal pathways and child migrants.
“The tragic deaths of migrants at the hands of human smugglers in San Antonio further strengthens our determination to go after the multi-billion-dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and increase our efforts to address the root causes of migration,” said the leaders’ statement. Dealing with security issues that include fentanyl, arms trafficking, and human smuggling are also a priority for the nations, the statement said.
According to CBS News, Obrador said Tuesday that the U.S.
and Mexico should reject the current “status quo” at the border.
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