(CNSNews.com) - The White House confirmed Monday that the Biden administration has been in discussions with the governments of Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala and has received commitments to maintain a troop presence at the border to help with the border surge.
“There have been a series of bilateral discussions between our leadership and the regional governments of Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. Through those discussions, there was a commitment as you mentioned to increase border security, so Mexico made the decision to maintain 10,000 troops at its southern border, resulting in twice as many daily migrant interdictions,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
“Guatemala surged 1500 police and military personnel to its southern border with Honduras and agreed to have 12 checkpoints along the migratory route. Honduras surged 7,000 police and military to disperse a large contingent of migrants,” the press secretary said.
“As with any diplomatic discussion, these discussions happen at several levels, and certainly as you know, we have an envoy who has discussions with the region. We’ve had Roberta Jacobson working for a period of time to help have these discussions with the region about what steps can be taken to help reduce the number of migrants who are coming to the U.S.-Mexico border,” she said.
When asked whether the agreements were struck recently in the past few weeks, Psaki said, “I think that’s fair to say, but I would also say that often these discussions are ongoing over a period of time and take place at several levels of the government both here and within these countries.”
When asked whether the plan is to apprehend migrants trying to cross the border or as they’re on their way to the U.S., the press secretary directed the reporter to speak with the countries about how they would be implementing the agreement.
“I think the objective is to make it more difficult to make the journey and make crossing the borders more difficult,” Psaki said.