Mexico’s president states the obvious: It’s Biden’s fault migrants are surging at the border

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed President Joe Biden on Tuesday for the ongoing immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, suggesting that the new president and his administration provoked mass migration by broadcasting open-borders policies.

The left-wing politician, often referred to as AMLO, appeared to agree with conservative critics of the president, who say that his departure from former President Donald Trump's tougher stance on immigration has resulted in unprecedented numbers of migrants surging into the country, Newsweek reported.

"Expectations were created that with the government of President Biden, there would be a better treatment of migrants. And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so," the Mexican president said during a Tuesday press conference.

Later in the same press conference, according to Newsweek, Obrador blamed Biden for making matters worse at the border by ignoring the fact that bad actors such as smugglers and traffickers are able to capitalize on the mass migration.

He also reportedly stressed that if the U.S. wants to do something to stop the migration, it ought to invest in Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, where many of the migrants come from.

Obrador's remarks matched similar ones he made earlier this month, when he noted after a virtual meeting with Biden that migrants "see him as the migrant president, and so many feel they're going to reach the United States."

"We need to work together to regulate the flow, because this business can't be tackled from one day to the next," Obrador added.

Those remarks were included in an eye-opening report that detailed frustration within Mexico's government over the Biden administration's border crisis and the business boom it has created for dangerous gangs, cartels, and traffickers.

One Mexican official, speaking anonymously to Reuters, claimed that organized crime units altered their modus operandi "the day Biden took office" and were now exhibiting "unprecedented" levels of sophistication.

"Migrants have become a commodity," the official added.

Yet as many are lining up to state the obvious — that the Biden administration is largely responsible for the current crisis due to its open-borders messaging — Biden officials are pushing back, instead casting blame on the previous administration under Trump.

Last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said immigration authorities just needed time to "rebuild the system that was entirely dismantled in the prior administration."

He later argued that "the previous administration's disruptions to the immigration system is the reason why holding facilities are being overwhelmed by an influx of unaccompanied minors."