The United States and Mexico are calling on each other to do more to secure their shared border.
In a post on X after a call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mexico’s foreign secretary, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said Thursday that the “incremental progress in facing border security challenges is unacceptable” — and that it wants to see more concrete outcomes from Mexico in dismantling the drug trade.
The United States made clear that incremental progress in facing border security challenges is unacceptable. Upcoming bilateral engagements with Mexico will require concrete, verifiable outcomes to dismantle narcoterrorist networks and deliver a real reduction in fentanyl…
— Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (@WHAAsstSecty) January 16, 2026
But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday credited decreased seizures of narcotics by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with her country’s increased security on their side of the border. She called on the United States to do more to stop arms trafficking into Mexico.
“They have to do their part as well,” she said at her daily morning press conference.
The back and forth comes days after what Sheinbaum described as a friendly phone call between her and President Donald Trump, who has said he would use the U.S. military inside Mexico to fight cartels.
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