Overview

• U.S. lawmakers, led by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, have traveled to Mexico City to discuss immigration enforcement and border security with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
• The visit follows a two-day tour of the Rio Grande Valley region of the border, which has seen a significant increase in illegal immigration since President Joe Biden took office.
• The lawmakers' visit to Mexico comes two days after Mexican officials met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other officials in Washington to discuss border control measures.
• McCaul and other lawmakers are seeking to influence policy platforms ahead of Mexico's presidential election in June, emphasizing the need for stronger immigration controls.
• McCaul has highlighted the national security risks posed by the current border situation, noting that there have been 312 border patrol encounters with illegal immigrants who matched those in the U.S. government's consolidated Terrorist Screening Dataset since the beginning of FY2021.