Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wants the United States to pay $20 billion to help curb illegal immigration.
The U.S. has experienced a drastic uptick in illegal border crossings in recent months, including 192,000 apprehensions in November on top of 9,600 additional daily migrant encounters during the first three weeks of December. Texas, Florida and New York City have been front and center the past year because of the influx and politicians redirecting them to other areas and states.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has called the Biden administration’s approach to immigration “an unmitigated disaster,” traveled with 64 other House Republicans to the southern border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, on Wednesday to tour what has been a heavily traversed area by migrants. While there, cameras caught migrants traveling through the Rio Grande River to the U.S., just a feet away from the politicians.
Obrador said during a Friday news conference that he requested U.S. authorities to deploy the $20 billion in funds as part of a cooperative plan to help other countries in Latin America as record numbers of migrants are filing through Central America and Mexico to enter the U.S.
Newsweek reached out to Obrador’s office via email, as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for comment.