Border surge caused by Biden's policies, says President of Mexico

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday blamed the current migrant surge at the US southern border on Biden's lax border policies.

Obrador said that Biden created expectations upon taking office that migrants would be admitted and welcomed across the border, causing migrants to leave their countries and travel, through Mexico, to the US border, Fox News reports.

President Biden moved in early February to reverse asylum restrictions and to end the "Remain in Mexico" program, both actions that were implemented by the previous Trump Administration. According to Obrador, Biden's rolling back these restrictions invited thousands from as far as Central America to travel to the border seeking to cross into the US.

"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," Lopez Obrador said during his March 23 press conference.

Currently, there are more than 15,000 migrant minors in custody along the southern border, with 5,000 of which being held in Customs and Border Protection facilities meant for short term holding, according to CBS News.

Biden said earlier this week that he will visit the border "at some point," while the administration resists urges from GOP lawmakers to declare the ongoing surge a crisis and to implement restrictions in response.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that "the border is closed" and that although they will be sending back families and single adults.

"We will not expel into the Mexican desert, for example, three orphan children. We are safely processing the children who do come to our border. We strongly urge, and the message is clear, not to do so now. I cannot overstate the perils of the journey that they take."