Mexico on Monday said that it would reject a US idea to take in all Central American asylum seekers if it is raised at talks this week with the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has threatened to impose tariffs if Mexico does not crack down on illegal immigration.
Trump last week said that he will impose a blanket tariff on Mexican imports from Monday next week to try to pressure Mexico to tackle large flows of mostly Central American migrants passing through en route to the US.
The threat roiled global markets, which are already suffering from a trade dispute between the US and China.
Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard said the country is committed to continuing to work to keep illegal immigrants from Central America from reaching the US border.
However, he said a more radical proposal favored by some US officials to designate Mexico a “safe third country,” which would force Central Americans seeking asylum in the US to instead apply for it in Mexico, is not an option.
“An agreement about a safe third country would not be acceptable for Mexico,” Ebrard told reporters in Washington. “They have not yet proposed it to me, but it would not be acceptable and they know it.”
Ebrard is to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the talks, which would also involve other senior officials.
The negotiations in Washington would be closely watched by financial markets concerned that import tariffs would ultimately hit the US economy by adding to the cost of a wide range of goods in the US, from Mexican-made vehicles and auto parts to televisions, beer and food.
US-based Mexican-themed fast food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc estimated a US$15 million hit from the proposed tariffs and said it could cover that by raising its burrito prices by about US$0.05.
US business groups have opposed the tariff plan and the influential US Chamber of Commerce is looking at ways to challenge it, including legal options.
In a possible sign of US priorities in the talks, which are due to run through at least today, US Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Sunday said that Mexico should deploy more personnel to stop illegal immigrants along a remote, jungly stretch of border with Guatemala.
McAleenan also said Mexico should bolster its own immigration screenings along that border, crack down on criminal networks transporting migrants and enable more migrants to wait in Mexico while they apply for asylum in the US.
Since January, the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has ramped up detentions and deportations, but that has not been enough to stop the growing tide of families reaching the US, mainly from Guatemala and Honduras.
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
STICKING TO DEFENSE: Despite the screening of videos in which they appeared, one of the defendants said they had no memory of the event A court trying a Frenchman charged with drugging his wife and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her screened videos of the abuse to the public on Friday, to challenge several codefendants who denied knowing she was unconscious during their actions. The judge in the southern city of Avignon had nine videos and several photographs of the abuse of Gisele Pelicot shown in the courtroom and an adjoining public chamber, involving seven of the 50 men accused alongside her husband. Present in the courtroom herself, Gisele Pelicot looked at her telephone during the hour and a half of screenings, while her ex-husband
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
RSS