Mexican president urges need to regularize migrant workers in U.S.

MEXICO CITY, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday stressed the need for the U.S. government to regularize the status of Mexican migrants who have been working in the United States for many years.

In the wake of his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Tuesday, Lopez Obrador reiterated at his daily press conference that the U.S. government said at the meeting it was committed to issuing more temporary work visas for Mexican and Central American migrants, but did not specify a number.

"Progress was made regarding an increase in temporary work visas and I raised the need to regularize Mexicans who have been working in the United States for years," Lopez Obrador told journalists at the National Palace in Mexico City.

Lopez Obrador said he told Biden, "we must not continue the same policy" on immigration matters.

An immigration reform bill put forward by the Biden administration but stalled in U.S. Congress aims to regularize the status of approximately 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.