A bid by US President Donald Trump to deport non-Mexican illegal immigrants to Mexico that has enraged Mexicans was to top the agenda when officials from both nations met yesterday amid a deepening rift between the two nations.
The US government on Tuesday said it would seek to deport many illegal immigrants to Mexico if they entered the US from that nation, regardless of their nationality, prompting a fiery response from Mexican officials.
Calling the measure “unilateral” and “unprecedented,” Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray said new immigration guidelines would top the agenda of meetings in Mexico City with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly.
Photo: AFP
The stakes are high for the US, since Mexico has warned that a breakdown in relations could affect its extensive cooperation in the fight against narcotics and stemming the flow of Central American migrants that reach the US border
Talking points from a senior official show Mexicans plan to seek more information on Trump’s executive orders at the summit.
Officials plan to say: “We are worried about the consequences that these can have for Mexican nationals,” in the US, the notes showed.
As part of its response, Videgaray said the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs would get involved in legal cases in the US where it considered the rights of Mexicans had been violated.
“The Mexican government will take all the measures legally possible to defend the human rights of Mexicans abroad, especially in the United States,” Videgaray said.
The visit, which was to include meetings with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, as well as military, finance and interior officials, was supposed to focus on border security, law enforcement and trade, according to the US Department of State, but hopes for a thawing in relations are low, after a series of botched meetings last month deepened tensions between the historic allies.
“The relationship ... is at such a historic low that it would be wishful thinking to assume that new concrete agenda items to advance will come at this point,” Atlantic Council Latin America Economic Growth Initiative director Jason Marczak said.
Pena Nieto abruptly canceled a planned summit with Trump last month after the real-estate mogul suggested the Mexican leader should not come if he refused to pay for a border wall and Trump signed his first executive orders to punish sanctuary cities and build the wall, which could cost about US$21.6 billion, the first time Videgaray traveled to Washington to negotiate with his counterparts last month.
Trump has also threatened to rip up a key trade deal between the US and Mexico if he cannot renegotiate it to favor US interests.
Tuesday’s guidance also called for the hiring of 15,000 more US immigration agents, while subjecting immigrants who cannot show they have been in the nation for more than two years to “expedited removal.”
In the past the US has struggled to fill vacancies thanks to rigorous vetting requirements.
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