When the migration problem requires answers

Tijuana, Mexico — After taking the oath of office, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador addressed Mexico’s Congress on Saturday, covering all the hallmarks of his Mexico-first politics: combating poverty, social development, strengthening the rule of law and attacking corruption.

Notably absent from his speech was a specific reference to one of the most pressing matters of his young administration: the thousands of migrants who traveled through the region in caravans and are now gathered in Tijuana,at the Mexico-United States border.

López Obrador campaigned on a nationalist platform focused on helping Mexicans. But the Tijuana crisis has pushed to the forefront the challenges posed by large-scale migration through the region and the pressure it puts on Mexico’s relationships with Central America, from which the majority of migrants are from, and the United States, where most are headed.

The López Obrador administration, possibly in exchange for an agreement on the asylum deal, is hoping that the Trump administration will throw its political heft and money behind a proposal to come up with a comprehensive development plan to address the push factors, namely poverty and violence, that are driving much of the migration from Central America.