The United States on Thursday pledged to do more to tackle gun smuggling with Mexico, which said early efforts had been successful in bringing down the country’s long-horrific homicide rate.

Senior officials from neighboring states met in Washington after also sealing a deal that would keep most Venezuelan migrants seeking to enter the United States in Mexico, a deal criticized by some of President Joe Biden’s usual allies .

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the two nations worked together to seize 32,000 guns this year and credited the effort with a 9.2 percent drop in homicides in his country.

“These are not just statistics. We’re talking about saving lives,” Ebrard said.

“There’s still a long way to go, that doesn’t mean that everything is solved. But the most important indicator is that, for the first time in recent years, we’ve seen not only a decrease in homicides, but also in kidnappings, robberies and vehicle thefts.”

The collaboration is part of a so-called Bicentennial Framework sealed a year ago to honor two centuries of diplomatic relations.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said the two countries would set up a new task force to see “what else we can do to counteract this problem.”

“We will be relentless in our attack on it,” he told a news conference.

Mexico has long pointed the finger at the United States and its lax gun laws for the flow of guns to its cartels, which in turn are often funded by selling drugs to US consumers.

Mexico on Monday filed its latest lawsuit in a US court to crack down on an Arizona arms dealer accused of collaborating with smugglers.

Noting political sensitivities in the United States, where the rival Republican Party supports the right to bear arms, Mayorkas stressed that the two countries are only working against cross-border smuggling and not on domestic gun policy.

The Biden government took office promising a more humane treatment of migrants than under ex-President Donald Trump, who had promised a wall on the Mexican border.

But in a policy that reflects Trump’s efforts to prevent Central Americans from fleeing poverty and violence, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday that Venezuelans attempting to enter the United States on foot or by swimming would be sent to Mexico and would not be admitted.

Nearly six million Venezuelans have fled years of economic implosion under leftist leader Nicolas Maduro. About 2.4 million are in neighboring Colombia, but increasing numbers have attempted to enter the United States.

The Biden administration said it would also allow around 24,000 Venezuelans to enter legally if they have support in the United States and pass screening, in line with procedures for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.

Senator Bob Menendez, a member of Biden’s Democratic Party and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised the legal route but said it was “inexcusable” to send more Venezuelan migrants to Mexico.

The decision “adds salt to an open wound while also undermining our asylum system, which President Biden has promised to restore,” Menendez said in a statement.

Daniel Berlin of the International Rescue Committee said restrictive policies “only encourage further exploitation of those in dire need of safety”.

Mayorkas insisted the new policy would deter Venezuelans from taking “desperate and dangerous” actions, including by people smugglers.

Instead, they are encouraged to “take the humane, safe and orderly path to a better life,” he said.