Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to Mexico City on Wednesday to meet with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to discuss a surge in illegal immigration.
The meeting will include Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White House homeland security adviser.
The meeting comes as a record number of illegal immigrants attempted to enter during the month, with Border Patrol encountering as many as 10,000 a day, with another caravan of between 6,000 and 10,000 people on their way to the border, according to reports.
The new caravan, roughly 1,000 miles south of the U.S. border in the state of Chiapas, includes migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela and Haiti, among other countries.
While President Biden has failed to keep the numbers down and institute some limits on asylum access, his efforts have failed to dent the numbers.
In November, a smaller caravan dispersed after officials took hundreds of the migrants to local shelters.
Biden has faced stepped up attacks as 2024 reelection year approaches and faced pressure from mayors of Democratic cities over the increase in migrants arriving in their cities.
Meanwhile in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that authorizes law enforcement officials in his state to arrest migrants who cross without authorization, which is being challenged by El Paso County in federal court.
In Washington, D.C., Republicans have refused to approve wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel without a serious crackdown to protect the U.S. border.
The increase in border crossings in recent weeks has forced border officials to temporarily shut down railway crossings in El Paso and Eagle Pass, Texas, and to close the port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona, though the railway crossings were reopened.
According to reports, López Obrador gave a briefing about a call with Biden in which they agreed more enforcement at the border is needed and said he would aim at reinforcing containment measures in southern Mexico to thwart attempts to reach the border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced Friday there were more than 190,000 apprehensions between ports of entry in November.
U.S. officials said they have “removed or returned” more than 400,000 people between May and the end of November.
Troy Miller, acting leader of the border agency, said in an statement, “We are facing a serious challenge along the southwest border and C.B.P. and our federal partners need more resources from Congress — as outlined in the supplemental budget request — to enhance border security and America’s national security.”