Mexico and the United States, Moving Forward or at a Standstill?

An immigration crisis, withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, a crisis with France, tension with China, confrontation with Russia, an environmental agenda that isn’t going anywhere and a reversal of his promise to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy — these are all part of Joe Biden’s foreign policy during his first year as president.

Relations with the United States are an indispensable priority for our country; millions of Mexican citizens live in the U.S., our exports there total $494.2 billion (according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography) and there is an increasingly integrated binational border community that serves as an engine for both national economies. Thus, the matter is as broad as it is dynamic and complex.

In spite of our close ties and the fierce election debates that made a political piñata of Mexico in the United States, today our country has lost relevance on the American agenda. We won’t miss Donald Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric, but we will miss the benefit of being a relevant actor at one of the most important political tables on the planet. Can we be relevant to the United States while tensions with Russia and China determine the global agenda?

In a frivolous calculation, immigration concerns have been positioned as a security matter rather than a humanitarian issue. Mexico lost important space for negotiation, and the recognition and legitimacy it gained in fronting the Global Compact for Migration* when it agreed to the “Remain in Mexico” program. Nevertheless, Biden continues to be overwhelmed by the number of people who struggle to enter the United States and is placating neither his own party, which demands a dedicated solution to human rights violations, nor the anti-immigration Republican opposition.

Mexico has offered the “Sowing Life” program as an option for the development of Central America and our own country. Although it’s too early to analyze how viable this program is, we do know that migration continues to put pressure on Biden. Mexico presents a smart option for stemming the conditions that generate migration; it’s the only way the American president may be able to escape that debate.

One of Mexico’s greatest strengths in negotiating with its northern neighbor relates to the security agenda. For the United States, the subjects of terrorism, customs, drug cartels, migration, extradition and money laundering, among many others, are matters that get directly to the heart of national security and therefore, to the government’s priorities. The United States cannot have a security policy without collaboration on its southern border.

The economic aspect of the U.S.-Mexico relationship also offers opportunities: inflation continues unabated, supply chains are still affected and commercial tensions with China are increasing. The United States economy is growing and with it, the demand for labor and wages. Mexico renegotiated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement including numerous opportunities to consolidate the region as the strongest economy on the planet. This plan may be interesting to Washington to the extent we offer an alternative no longer available with China, but it requires joint planning, greater leadership, and defined industrial policy with regard to short and long-term strategies.

Mexico needs to generate a new model of bilateral relations that advances strategic positions dealing with sovereignty and the decisions of each nation, a model that includes the different actors in an integrated strategy of public diplomacy and that leads the effort to revitalize Mexico’s relevance in the United States, a model that changes the narrative and places us in a position of economic, academic, social and political leadership. The alternative is to continue on the path we are on, a path that seems to produce fewer results every day.

*Editor’s note: The 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement prepared under the auspices of the United Nations that covers “all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.”