The end of 2022 has been especially tough at the border. The year closed with the highest illegal immigration numbers seen since World War II. That was more than two million encounters, a euphemism for apprehensions made by the Border Patrol. The flow has been driven by what the Department of Homeland Security has called an "unprecedented exodus" of people leaving Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

So, with no way to return the largest group of people arriving in the U.S., Mexico has been forced to play an uncomfortable role as a holding room for its northern neighbor. This has increased the pressure on an increasingly overburdened Mexican assistance system.

Mexico and the U.S. inaugurated a new binational security plan early last year, the Bicentennial Agreement, more focused on paper on prevention and collaboration. Meanwhile, Mexico continues to shoot up its deportation figures and both its southern and northern borders remain as or more armored than under Trump. Between October and November, López Obrador deployed more than 32,000 military and National Guard troops, a record in the last two years