Mexico’s purpose in holding the meeting was to strengthen the dialogue with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and to discuss the change in administration in the U.S. as well as the main mechanisms for cooperation on border and migration issues.
Jeh Johnson has been the Secretary of Homeland Security since 2013.
The bilateral Mexico-U.S. agenda is rich and complex. It includes various political, economic, trade, social, environmental, energy, technical, security and border issues. The United States is the country with the greatest effect on Mexico.
There are 33.7 million people with a Mexican background (11% of the total) and 11.4 million people who were born in Mexico living in the United States, of which 6.5 million are undocumented.
The last meeting between the Foreign Secretary and the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security took place on September 22 during the 71st session of the UN General Assembly. They discussed key issues of the US-Mexico relationship and acknowledged the contributions of the Mexican community to the United States.
At the press conference, Foreign Secretary Ruiz Massieu said that the common goal of both countries is to make North America into the most prosperous and competitive region in the world.
