Biden and Mexico leader discuss migration

(FILES) In this file photo US President-elect Joe Biden speaks during a press conference at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware on November 16, 2020. - US President-elect Joe Biden will name on November 24, 2020 the first picks to be part of his administration, his chief of staff said on November 22, 2020, declining to say what positions will be announced. "You are going to see the first of the president-elect's cabinet picks on Tuesday of this week," Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain told ABC. "You'll have to wait for president-elect to say that himself on Tuesday." (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

US President-elect Joe Biden told Mexico’s president Saturday he was committed to addressing the root causes of poor Latino migrants crossing the border into America.

Outgoing President Donald Trump made tightening the southern frontier against what he called the free and dangerous flow of people entering the US from Mexico and Central America a key pillar of his US-centric policy on immigration, including his fitful plan to build a border wall.

Biden spoke Saturday with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and emphasized “the need to reinvigorate US-Mexico cooperation to ensure safe and orderly migration,” the Biden transition team said in a statement.

“The two leaders noted a shared desire to address the root causes of migration in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and southern Mexico and to build a future of greater opportunity and security for the region,” the team said.

The border is a major crossing point for migrants fleeing poverty, drug-related violence and other woes in Mexico and Central America.

Lopez Obrador, a leftist, had cordial relations with Trump but it was only this week that he finally congratulated Biden on his win in the November 3 US election.

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