McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The mayor of the Mexican town of Reynosa says he hopes President Joe Biden’s planned visit to the South Texas border will bring about in changes to the U.S. asylum process to reduce illegal immigration in Mexico.

“There has to be a political change from the American government to help avoid this migrant flow that is currently going through Reynosa in massive quantities to the United States,” Reynosa Mayor Carlos Víctor Peña Ortiz said during a visit to McAllen, Texas, on Monday afternoon.

Peña was north of the border to sign a memorandum of understanding with McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos that will allow firefighters from his city to train in McAllen at a new fire training facility the city is building. It also will allow U.S. firefighters from McAllen to go south of the border to learn more about how Mexican officials fight fires and to expand communication lines between the two municipalities to plan for emergencies.

When asked by reporters about Biden’s planned visit to Brownsville on Thursday, Peña responded that American changes need to be made.

He said he advocates that migrants apply for asylum in their home countries “and not on the border because it is causing a lot of problems toward the communities on both sides of the border.”

Peña says the current system — whereby migrants cross the Rio Grande and apply for U.S. asylum on U.S. soil — also fuels and funds transnational criminal organizations, many of which terrorize Reynosa and other Mexican border cities.

“It gives a lot of economic benefits to the cartel of that region,” he said.

Cartels regularly charge about $8,000 per migrant for those from Central and South America to cross the border; Chinese nationals pay upwards of $35,000, News Nation reports.

Years ago, most migrants crossing from Mexico came from what was called the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. But now many more nationalities are trying to migrate.

“Right now we have a massive flow of migrants from Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Africa, Central America, South America,” he said.

“We want the petition for asylum to be in the consulate’s office or their country of origin. Not for them to come to the border for the CBP One app,” he said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under Title 8 rules, requires asylum-seekers to apply for an asylum interview at a U.S. port of entry via the agency’s CBP One app. There are a total of 1,450 CBP asylum appointments per day.

Currently, CBP One appointments are being granted in these Southwest border ports:

• Arizona: Nogales






• Texas: Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, Laredo, and El Paso






• California: Calexico and San Ysidro

Biden plans to visit Brownsville on Thursday and meet with Border Patrol agents and local leaders. He wants to use the trip to call on congressional Republicans to take up a bipartisan border security agreement that the Senate put forward.

The proposed bill would increase resources and changes policies to close loopholes that are being exploited by criminal cartels. It also would empower and require the administration, regardless of party control, to close the border when the system becomes overwhelmed.

Former President Donald Trump will also visit the border on Thursday. He is expected to visit Eagle Pass, Texas.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.