Mexico to Invest on US-Mexico Border

14th July 2022

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A White House statement has declared that the Mexican government has agreed to provide approximately $1.5bn towards a multitude of new construction projects across the US-Mexico border to strengthen the US’s ability to screen and process migrants.

The agreement was discussed on Tuesday when the President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador visited the White House to meet with US President Joe Biden.

Former President Donald Trump’s well documented campaign to build a new border wall was believed to be a cost that the Mexican government would have to pay for. Whilst the Trump administration constructed hundreds of miles of new and modernised wall at the border, Mexico did not pay for any of it.

Mexico has now come to an agreement to pay for a number of infrastructure projects through a collaborative effort along the countries’ southern and northern borders. This will include the upgrading of ports of entry and improving screening processes of immigrants trying to cross from Mexico to the US.

The particular details of the new projects are still being worked on, but the new agreement will not materialise in the building of any kind of wall or border barrier between the two countries.

The main purpose of the new projects will be to improve the speed and security of border screening, not necessarily to prevent migrants from crossing. Border Patrol agents faced over 239,000 migrants crossing the southern border in May which is the highest monthly total held on record.

The US and Mexican governments will meet again to hold high-level talks in September with the aim of strengthening existing trade and commerce ties between the two countries, the statement added.

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