MEXICO CITY, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The flow of undocumented migrants entering Mexico to reach the United States has fallen by 36.2 percent and shows signs of dropping further, Mexico's Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Ebrard detailed the results of a U.S.-Mexico strategy launched in early June to curb the rising influx of migrants seeking asylum.
From June 7 to July 13, the number of migrants who reached the U.S. border via Mexico dropped from 3,880 a day to 2,652, according to Ebrard.
The two countries had agreed to give the strategy, which called for Mexico to step up security along its southern border with Guatemala, among other things, 45 days to have an impact.
"We are going to keep up this effort so the rate increasingly drops," said Ebrard, who met with his U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo on Sunday in Mexico City to discuss immigration, a day before the 45-day period ended.
At the start of the year, Mexico was overwhelmed by caravans of Central American migrants who would rush border crossing points in southern states, such as Chiapas, by the thousands in a desperate attempt to get to the United States.
It was forced to deploy security troops in border areas to control the exodus after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose punitive tariffs on Mexican goods unless something was done to stem the flow of migrants.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is also pressing for the United States and other developed countries to fund development programs to alleviate the poverty-driving migrants north.
Ebrard said he and Pompeo agreed to again review progress in immigration controls in another 45 days at a meeting in Washington.
