MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico announced Monday that several top U.S. advisors on border and immigration issues will meet with Mexican officials on Tuesday to discuss migration and development in Central America.
The talks come as a surge of migrants has hit the U.S. southern border. The trip to Mexico will include Roberta Jacobson, the White House’s lead adviser on the border, and Juan González, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere.
Mexican immigration agents stop people who crossed the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, to see their identification documents as they enforce limits on all but essential travel near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, March 22, 2021. Agents are forcing those with permission to enter Mexico for work or a visit to use the official border crossing bridge and others are being returned to Guatemala. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) 
Mexican immigration agents walk towards an access point to the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, March 22, 2021. Agents are enforcing new limits on all but essential travel at its shared border with Guatemala. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) 
Mexican immigration agents stop people who crossed the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, to see their identification documents near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, March 22, 2021. Agents are forcing those with permission to enter Mexico for work or a visit to use the official border crossing bridge, and those who do not are being returned to Guatemala, as they enforce new limits on all but essential travel at its shared border with Guatemala. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) 
Mexican immigration agents stop people who crossed the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, to see their identification documents as they enforce limits on all but essential travel near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, March 22, 2021. Agents are forcing those with permission to enter Mexico for work or a visit to use the official border crossing bridge, and those who do not are being returned to Guatemala. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) 
People travel across the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, from Guatemala to Mexico, as Mexican immigration agents enforce limits on all but essential travel at its shared border, near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, March 22, 2021. Mexican agents are forcing those with permission to enter Mexico to use the official border crossing bridge and others are being returned to Guatemala. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) 
Guatemalan travelers return to Tecun Uman, Guatemala as they wade across the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico after they were turned away by Mexican immigration agents near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, March 22, 2021. Agents are forcing those with permission to enter Mexico for work or a visit to use the official border crossing bridge and those who do not are being returned to Guatemala, as they enforce new limits on all but essential travel at its shared border with Guatemala. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s director for North American affairs, said the talks will focus on the two countries “joint efforts for secure, safe and regulated migration,” and plans to provide economic development in southern Mexico and Central America so people won’t come under pressure to migrate.
Since Biden’s inauguration, the U.S. has seen a dramatic spike in the number of people encountered by border officials. There were 18,945 family members and 9,297 unaccompanied children encountered in February — an increase of 168% and 63%, respectively, from the month before, according to the Pew Research Center.
U.S. border patrol officials had encountered more than 29,000 unaccompanied minors since Oct. 1, nearly the same number of youths taken into custody for all of the previous budget year, according to administration officials.
Mexico announced restrictions last week on nonessential travel across its southern border with Guatemala and Belize “to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” and sent hundreds of immigration agents and National Guard to the southern border to clamp down on crossings.
Mexico did not explain why the measure was announced now, more than a year after the start of the pandemic, but it came on the same day the U.S. confirmed it will send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Mexico.
Officials say migrant traffickers are encouraging people to make the trip by claiming the U.S. border is open to migrants, while Biden administration officials have stressed that the border is not open.
Mexico has cooperated with U.S. efforts to stem the flow, while stressing that the problem can only be solved by addressing the root problems of poverty and joblessness that lead many to migrate. Mexico has proposed massive investment to promote economic development in those areas.