By Raul Cortes

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would meet U.S. President Joe Biden’s homeland security adviser later on Tuesday to discuss migration as the White House pushes for legislation to provide new funds for border security.

The visit of Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall comes at Biden’s behest, Lopez Obrador told a regular press conference.

“The president spoke to me to tell me about issues that have to do with negotiations on migration, and he wanted me to meet with his adviser on security matters,” he said.

The president also said Canadian officials would visit Mexico on Wednesday, though he did not provide further details.

On Monday, the Biden administration said the president would veto a standalone bill backed by House Republicans to provide aid to Israel in favor of a broader, bipartisan measure.

That $118 billion bill would overhaul migration policy and provide new funding for border security.

Lopez Obrador called the proposed measures “electorally motivated,” since Biden’s main opponent ahead of the U.S. November election is former Republican President Donald Trump, whose migration crackdown was a cornerstone of his 2017-2021 administration.

“We think this policy is not going to work,” Lopez Obrador said, instead calling for measures such as regularizing Mexicans who had been working in the United States for more than five years and ending U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba.

“Apparently the Republicans are conditioning the vote on there being anti-Mexican migration measures (included in the bill),” Lopez Obrador said. “They want to use us as a bargaining chip.”

The Mexican leader has long called for the U.S. to address the root causes of migration, and on Tuesday doubled down on his request for Mexico’s northern neighbor to invest $20 billion a year in poor Latin American and Caribbean nations.

(Reporting By Raul Cortes; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Drazen Jorgic, David Ljunggren and Brendan O’Boyle)

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