Customs and Border Protection agents stand guard as immigrants wait to be processed at a US Border Patrol transit center after crossing the border from Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas, on December 22, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday his government will reinforce measures to contain migration as he seeks to help the United States cope with record numbers of people trying to reach the US border.

Lopez Obrador's comments come a day after he spoke with US President Joe Biden, during which both agreed that more enforcement was needed at their shared frontier, as record numbers of migrants disrupt border trade.

"What was agreed is that we keep working together," Lopez Obrador told a regular press conference. "We have a proposal to strengthen our plans, what we've been doing," he added, without going into details.

Migrants are heading through Mexico to the US to escape violence, economic distress and negative impacts of climate change, according the UN. The number crossing the perilous Darien Gap straddling Colombia and Central America has topped half a million this year, double last year's record

Migrants are heading through Mexico to the US to escape violence, economic distress and negative impacts of climate change, according the UN. The number crossing the perilous Darien Gap straddling Colombia and Central America has topped half a million this year, double last year's record.

The latest tensions over the border flared up after Mexican authorities temporarily stopped expelling migrants due to an end-of-year funding crunch, according to officials.

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After Lopez Obrador spoke, the government of Mexico's Coahuila state announced in a statement it had sent a planeload of migrants from Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Villahermosa, in the southern state of Tabasco to be returned to their countries of origin.

The statement did not specify the number of migrants on the Boeing 737, or whether more flights were planned, but it said the effort was coordinated with Mexico's national migration agency.

Top US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas, will visit Mexico on Wednesday to follow up on the call, Lopez Obrador said, calling current migratory pressures "extraordinary".

"Above all, the number of Venezuelan migrants," he said, also mentioning Haitians, Cubans and Ecuadorians. 

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Lopez Obrador said Mexico would step up containment efforts on its southern border with Guatemala as his government seeks agreements with other countries to manage the northbound migrant flows.

Measures under discussion did not just involve containment, Lopez Obrador said, adding it was important to continue efforts to promote economic development in the region and address the root causes of migration.