The flow of migrants at the border rose by 15 percent in February after President Joe Biden outsourced U.S. border security to Mexico's pro-migration president.

Biden's border agents registered 142,000 illegal migrants in February, up from 125,000 in January.

That border inflow was in addition to the invited inflow of 114,000 economic migrants through several quasi-legal doorways announced by Biden's deputies.

That 15 percent jump in illegals is not what Biden's deputies wanted when they asked Mexico in December to slash the northward flow of illegals during the 2024 election year.

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They asked “for us to try and contain the flow of migration,” Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, told the 60 Minutes TV show in a March 24 broadcast.

But “the flow of migrants will continue” if Biden does not cooperate with Mexico's ambitions, Obrador told 60 Minutes.

“AMLO knows he has Biden over a barrel,” said a tweet from Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

AMLO has Biden over a barrel because Biden fears he will lose left-wing voters — and wealthy donors — if he tries to enforce Americans' border laws, but will lose even more centrist votes if Obarador allows more migrants over the border.

The tempting fix for Biden is to let Obrador's police guard the U.S. border by arresting and clubbing migrants as they head north through Mexico.

In December, Biden's border deputies agreed to Obrador's deal — and Mexico began arresting more migrants in January.

"Largely enabled"
Reality: https://t.co/Zoc85sCrad pic.twitter.com/T8sVlWijji

— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) March 25, 2024

During December, Obrador let a record-breaking flood of 251,000 illegal migrants cross the U.S. border far from the official border gates. Once the December deal was signed, Obrador suddenly slashed the illegal January inflow by 50 percent.

“We were more careful about our southern border,” Obrador told 60 Minutes, adding:

We spoke with the presidents of Central America, with the president of Venezuela, and with the president of Cuba. We asked them for help in curbing the flow of migrants. However, that is a short-term solution, not a long term.

The sudden Mexican policy shift reveals what has been obvious for decades: The flow of illegal migrants across the U.S. border is protected and concealed by both the U.S. and the Mexican governments.

The hidden government approval means the illegal inflow is better described as a government-run, cartel-taxed, off-the-books, unofficial economic and migration policy that works alongside the legal immigration system.

The resulting huge inflow of illegal migrant workers, consumers, and renters is mostly used as an economic stimulant for Wall Street's consumer-economy investments, regardless of the massive harm inflicted on ordinary Americans.

Many Wall Street leaders — and many politicians — asked for the consumer-economy inflow in 1990 just as they were outsourcing much of the Midwest's manufacturing and consumer economies to Asia and Mexico.

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Since 2021, Biden has invited at least 7 million more migrants to pass through the official border gates, often under the claim of having created new “legal pathways.”  That quasi-legal inflow of migrants dropped slightly in February, down to 114,000.

But Mexico gets a lot from the unofficial migration system.

For example, it has moved perhaps 15 million Mexicans into the United States, giving it a growing — but limited — political influence, plus a huge flood of valuable remittances.

Biden has made the deal sweeter for Mexico as he relies on Mexico to help bring more global migrants across the southern border.

We are not going to act as policemen for any foreign government … Of course, we are going to cooperate in fighting drugs, above all because it has become a very sensitive, very sad humanitarian issue, because a lot of young people are dying in the United States because of fentanyl.

But those concessions are not enough for Obrador. He is a Latino nationalist, he favors more Latino migration into the United States, and he wants to create a coalition of Latino states against the United States.

Deliberately or not, Obrador let the January inflow rise by 15 percent during February, so reminding Biden that he has the power to damage vulnerable Biden during the 2024 election season.

Biden's staff was silent about the greater inflow — but House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted both Obrador and Biden:

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policy suggestion for securing the U.S. border is absurd. The truth is that we face a security and humanitarian catastrophe at the southern border that is killing Americans and destroying our communities.

Meanwhile, the President of… https://t.co/uxucjBWQZ3

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) March 25, 2024

“The Marxist President of Mexico blackmails America,” said a tweet from Steve Cortes, a former spokesman for Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. He added:

AMLO wants Americans to give $20 billion a year to Latin America PLUS give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens from Mexico who are living in America. Zero respect for the US!

When asked by 60 Minutes, if Mexico will continue to curb the migration, AMLO replied, “We do and we want to continue doing it.”

60 Minutes described his price:

Obrador proposed his fix: that the United States commit $20 billion a year to four countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, lift, sanctions on Venezuela and the Cuban embargo, and legalize [amnesty] millions of law-abiding Mexicans living in the US.

“I'm speaking frankly,” Obrador told 60 Minutes. “We have to say things as they are, and I always say what I feel. I always say what I think.”

Editor's note: This article has been updated.