Mexico's president commits $1.5 billion to join effort with US to modernize border
Photo by Chris Kelponis-Pool/Getty Images
- Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to commit $1.5 billion to improve infrastructure at the border.
- Biden and Obrador committed to modernizing the border, an effort that will span multiple projects between 2022 and 2024.
- The joint effort will "create good-paying local jobs" and "bolster safety and security," a White House statement says.
The White House announced that Mexican government has agreed to supply $1.5 billion to improve the infrastructure along the US - Mexico border within the next two years.
In a joint statement released Tuesday, President Joe Biden and Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said they 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."
The projects, which will be carried out between 2022 and 2024, "will create good-paying local jobs, bolster safety and security, and make the economy more resilient to supply chain challenges," the statement said.
"The joint effort seeks to align priorities, unite border communities, and make the flow of commerce and people more secure and efficient."
Biden and Obrador, who met at the White House on Tuesday, said they are also committed to disrupting "the flow of fentanyl into our countries" by establishing a US-Mexico operational task force, according to the statement.
"We've been able to work together as good friends and true allies," Obrador said, noting grievances "not easy to forget," according to BBC.
Their meeting Tuesday comes around a month after Obrador boycotted the Summit of the Americas, which was hosted by the US in Los Angeles, California.
Biden has sought to establish newfound cooperation with Mexico since taking office. He campaigned on rolling back the Trump administration's strict immigration policies and last August, he stressed that "there will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration."
Shortly after his election, the Pentagon announced it was canceling border wall projects paid for with money taken from the military and reallocating the funds to their original purposes.
"Core to the prior administration's immigration strategy was to build a wall, and they couldn't even accomplish that in four years, let alone get Mexico to pay for it. By contrast, President Biden is taking unprecedented action to secure the border," a White House official said in a statement to ABC News.