Mexican government concerned that Biden administration is stoking illegal immigration

"They see him as the migrant president, and so many feel they're going to reach the United States," said Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of US President Joe Biden. "We need to work together to regulate the flow, because this business can't be tackled from one day to the next."

According to an internal assessment conducted by the Mexican government, gangs are taking advantage of what they see as "incentivize migration" to the United States by developing new smuggling methods.

Such incentives reportedly include an end to the Trump-era policy deporting illegal immigrants back to Central America, increasing support for victims of gangs, and a speedier immigration process.

The internal assessment has suggested that gangs began changing their strategies for infiltrating the United States beginning on the first day of the Biden administration, and that their level of sophistication in breaching the border has become "unprecedented." Officials also worry that migrant flow could increase even further as countries begin lifting coronavirus-related travel restrictions.

Migrants making the long journey to the United States have been among the primary victims of these gangs. According to the Mexican border state of Chihuahua's attorney general, Cesar Peniche, gangs will often recruit these migrants to smuggle drugs across the border or will even kidnap them for money.

The Mexican government is requesting that the United States provides more developmental aid to Central American nations, where most of the illegal immigrants originate from, in order to curb the flow, and has begun improving border security with neighbouring Guatemala.

However, the Mexican government has also publicly praised many efforts by the Biden administration to relax immigration rules, hailing the Biden administration's cancellation of border wall construction and support for pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants living in the United States.

Joe Biden seems to have previously agreed with the Mexican government's assessment of America's responsibility for illegal immigration. "When children travel hundreds of miles to reach the United States without their families, in the hands of criminals in the 21st century, that's a tragedy we all must take responsibility for," Biden said in 2014.

Biden had argued that "the country from which they come, and the country to which they are headed" should be taking responsibility for the problem.