U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top Biden administration officials met with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.  The surge in migration and drug trade were among the high-level talks in Mexico City.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents processed more than 181,000 migrants who reached the southern border illegally in August. That number is likely to be even higher for September.

For more on the U.S. migration crisis, joining the discussion:

• Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch is an immigration attorney.  
• Benjamin Norton is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Geopolitical Economy Report. 
• Rafael Carranza is an Immigration Issues reporter for the Arizona Republic newspaper. 
• Ariel Ruiz Soto is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Migration Policy Institute in Sacramento, California.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden administration officials will travel to Mexico City on Wednesday hoping to bolster a strategy to confront staggering fentanyl overdoses in the U.S. and soaring migration in the Western Hemisphere. https://t.co/1wlkWdk5Pz

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 4, 2023

Antony Blinken and other Biden administration officials are heading to Mexico. They must show that they have a plan to tackle organised crime and drug smuggling—and that Mexico is co-operating. Many Republicans favour harsher tactics, as we explain here https://t.co/CCFRWnfg9q

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) October 4, 2023