Congressman Correa Releases Statement Ahead of North American Leaders’ Summit
Washington, D.C. — Today Congressman Lou Correa (CA-46), a member of the Congressional U.S.-Mexico Interparliamentary group, released the following statement ahead of tomorrow’s North American Leaders’ Summit meeting between President Biden, President López Obrador of Mexico, and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada:
Rep. Correa said: “I applaud President Biden‘s actions to work and meet with Canadian President Trudeau and Mexican President López Obrador. NAFTA 2.0 was only the start, and there is still a lot of work to do in the American and Pan-American continent.
There’s an old saying, ‘When the US economy sneezes, Mexico catches pneumonia.’ The same applies to Central and South America. COVID-19 has devastated those economies. Our current border refugee crisis is again another symptom of the economic disaster devastating our Southern neighbors. We must immediately implement policies to stabilize the regional economies by creating good-paying jobs throughout the Americas and stabilizing trustworthy regional democratic institutions. Furthermore, private investment across Central and South America is key to job creation and stabilizing the regional economies. And transparency and oversight are the starts to strengthening democratic institutions.
This effort is a shared responsibility that falls primarily on the shoulders of the three leading economic nations of the Americas: the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For too long, we have overlooked the simmering democratic and economic crisis in the Americas. It is only when we feel the fire at our borders do, we begin to pay attention.
Similarly, our national security is heavily dependent on working with our neighbors and our allies. While today, the clear and present danger we face is cybersecurity, much of our efforts are focused on curbing international cybercrimes and cyber ransomware from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Cybercriminals are also conducting their hostile business at our borders. President Biden, we must ensure that our immediate neighbors work with us to assure that our cyber borders are secure and that we can also extradite cybercriminals from Canada and Mexico.
Central Orange County, and the 46th District, play a major role in the United States’ trade with Mexico and also in other areas such as manufacturing and finance.
I say to President Biden, we in Congress look forward to working with you to address the most critical matters to all Americans.”
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