The Government of President Joe Biden has launched two strategies against the crisis of deaths from fentanyl in the United States, but it is also reinforcing the front with Mexico and Canada, in order to reduce trafficking networks.
This July 24 and 25, the national security adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall, will travel to Mexico City, to lead a delegation from the Biden Administration, which will hold bilateral and trilateral meetings.
These meetings will also address the immigration situation in the region, which faces a new chapter in the US with the end of Title 42 last May, but with the challenge of Republicans against the new asylum system.
Sherwood-Randall will be accompanied by Assistant Secretary for Administration and State Resources, Rich Verma; Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco; the acting assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristie Canegallo, and the senior adviser to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Kemp Chester.
A senior White House official noted that there are five objectives to be met by the meetings, including increased pressure to prosecute drug cartel leaders, as well as the dismantling of criminal networks.
The US maintains its commitment – made under constant pressure from Mexico – to disrupt the trafficking of firearms into Mexico, in order to reduce the power of the cartels.
The fourth objective is to attack the “supply of chemical precursors used to manufacture illicit fentanyl”, actions that have been accompanied by sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department on legally established companies that have ties to criminal groups, such as the Sinaloa Cartel.
The meeting follows up on working groups established during the North American Leaders Summit (NALS) in January 2023, where President Biden, his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created a high-level Trilateral Fentanyl Committee.
The fifth objective of the meetings is focused on the border, to reduce both drug and arms trafficking, as well as address the immigration situation.
“Under the leadership of President Biden, we have strengthened our cooperation with Mexico and Canada on migration,” highlights the White House. “We have implemented innovative approaches to address the challenges of irregular migration, and they have had a measurable impact on migration in the region.”
The immigration issues are a follow-up to a meeting that Sherwood-Randall had with the Mexican president at the beginning of last May, to address joint actions against people smugglers.
Options for legal pathways for migration to the US and new actions to secure the border will also be analyzed.
“We will continue to support and strengthen the successful initiatives that we have launched to address the humanitarian situation caused by migratory flows,” defended the Biden Administration.
Source: La Opinion
