Mexico’s president urges U.S. to restore ties with Venezuela despite recent immigration agreement 

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday urged the Biden administration to restore relations with Venezuela, hinting that an agreement between the two countries might be in the making. 

Last week, the Biden administration and Mexico reached an agreement to address the large influx of Venezuelan migrants that are seeking asylum status in the U.S. 

Per the agreement, the U.S. will send Venezuelan migrants arriving at the border to Mexico under Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows border officials to quickly deny entry to migrants to prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

Until this agreement, Venezuelans were not subjected to Title 42 because they could not be returned to their home country after the U.S. and Caracas broke diplomatic relations in 2019 and no third country was willing to accept them. 

Instead, Venezuelan migrants will be able to apply for a humanitarian parole program in Mexico, which will allow them to enter the country and secure work authorization for up to two years. The U.S. has agreed to give out 24,000 such permits.

Mexican officials, however, are urging Washington to restore its ties with Caracas to help facilitate migrant returns. 

"Relations between the government of the United States and Venezuela need to be restored," Lopez Obrador told a news conference. "I know they're working towards an agreement."

However, a U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson said that U.S. policy towards Venezuela had remained unchanged. 

AMLO also urged the U.S. to expand the number of humanitarian access permits to allow more than 24,000 Venezuelan migrants to apply. 

"They're not enough," Lopez Obrador said. "We're going to be asking that they give out more."