U.S. team led by Blinken to hold security talks in Mexico on Friday

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Mexico City on Friday to lead a delegation for high-level security talks between the neighboring countries, the White House said on Monday.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and other officials will accompany Blinken to take part in the Biden administration’s first U.S.-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue. The White House said the talks would “build on discussions in previous months on protecting our people, preventing transborder crime, and pursuing criminal networks, while promoting human rights and the rule of law.” Talks come as migration issues continue to rankle both North American countries, which share a 1,960-mile (3,155-km) border.

Most recently, thousands of Haitian migrants formed a large impromptu border camp https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-border-camp-cleared-haitians-thousands-more-move-2021-09-25 at the Mexican-U.S. border. Some have been flown back to Haiti, while others are waiting to have their cases for asylum heard in the United States or remain scattered across Latin America seeking refuge.

But the two countries also have a broader relationship, with the United States acting as the leading supplier of military equipment to Mexico and taking special interest in the countries anti-drug initiatives.