U.S. and Mexican officials at a Monday meeting "ran out of time" before discussing the unprecedented border crisis, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
While "uncontrolled migration across the U.S. southern border" was "on the agenda" for an official meeting between American president Joe Biden and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a private talk between the leaders ran so long that the two administrations left the subject of immigration "largely unaddressed."
Instead, the Biden-López Obrador meeting focused on "supply chains and drug smuggling," officials told Bloomberg.
This is far from the first time the Biden administration has given short shrift to the border crisis. Even as illegal immigration last year soared to record levels, Biden never visited the border, saying in December that there were "more important things going on." He only visited the border before the trip to Mexico this week. Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden has tasked with overseeing the crisis, has been to the border once.
A Biden measure intended to deter migrants, meanwhile, will do little to alleviate the crisis, experts told the Washington Free Beacon.
While officials said that Biden and López Obrador "discussed migration and the border in their private session," Bloomberg noted that "it isn't clear how much time they spent on the subject or in what detail they spoke." López Obrador said that he and Biden only spoke about immigration "in a very broad manner."