Andres Manuel López Obrador asked Joe Biden to restore relations with Venezuela due to the increase of Venezuelan migrants and promised that his government will support Venezuelan migrants stranded in the country after a week of the new US measures, which include their immediate deportation to Mexico.

"It is a procedure that takes time, we are going to support those who are in our territory; as we always do, with shelters, with food, with medical attention," he said during the published press conference. 

The Mexican president's statements come after Washington announced last week that it will implement a plan to grant 24,000 humanitarian visas to Venezuelans arriving by air, but including the expulsion to Mexico of those arriving illegally through borders. 

This new measure took Venezuelans already in Mexico by surprise, as López Obrador acknowledged that there are "quite a few" Venezuelan migrants in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, an area of southeastern Mexico, where municipal authorities are asking for support because they are overwhelmed.

In an interview to the Voice of America, Blas Nuñez-Neto, in charge of DHS Border Policy, said that this "will not be the last number to be announced" and that there is a possibility that the number of visas will be extended. 

The U.S. Border Patrol on Friday reported a record 2.2 million migrant encounters along the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022, which ended in September, Reuters reported.