US and Mexican officials hail success of talks aiming to control record migration

US and Mexican officials have hailed the success of talks held on Wednesday aimed at curbing historically high unauthorized immigration across their shared 2,000-mile border that risks becoming a humanitarian disaster and an election-year political crisis for the US president, Joe Biden.

- Edward Helmore

After the closed-door meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Mexican foreign minister, Alicia Bárcena, Mexico's president hailed what he described as "important agreements" but did not elaborate.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has pledged to help ease migratory pressures on the US while also calling on its neighbour to invest more to help the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean "instead of putting up barriers, barbed wire fences in the river, or thinking about building walls".

The US state department said the meeting would address "unprecedented irregular migration in the western hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the US will address border security challenges".

The US secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, described the talks as "very productive". He added that "the regional challenge of migration requires regional solutions, and we appreciate Mexico's commitment to continue its efforts alongside us and with others."