Jun 30, 2022

Mexican official: US to issue 300K temporary work visas

The U.S. plans to issue 300,000 temporary work visas to migrants from Mexico and Central America, according to a senior Mexican official.

Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández said half of the visas will go to Mexicans and migrants currently in Mexico and the other half is for workers in Central America. López Hernández announced the visas during a late-June trip to Tijuana, Baja California. According to Mexico News Daily, he said a formal announcement would be made when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador meets President Joe Biden at the White House July 12.

U.S. officials have not confirmed the report, and a call to the Department of Labor was not immediately returned June 30. It’s unknown what percentage, if any, of the temporary work visas would be distributed through the H-2A program.

It’s a move that López Obrador has supported in the past, including issuing temporary work visas to Central Americans, in the hopes of decreasing the number of illegal immigrants from there currently in Mexico.