President-elect Donald Trump‘s declaration on Wednesday that Mexico had agreed to “stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border” ignores Mexico’s previously enacted policies that led to a 75% decrease in “encounters” at the southern border.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s response to Trump’s claim of success in handling the southern border also suggested that Mexico has been working to stem illegal immigration into the U.S.
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“I shared that caravans are not arriving at the northern border because they are being taken care of in Mexico,” Sheinbaum wrote in a statement posted to social media.
In another post, Sheinbaum wrote: “In our conversation with President Trump, I explained to him the comprehensive strategy that Mexico has followed to address the migration phenomenon, respecting human rights.”
“Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are assisted before they reach the border,” she continued. “We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples.”
Even before the Wednesday morning back-and-forth, Mexico had been stopping three times as many migrants from entering the U.S. compared to one year ago. Mexico’s crackdown on migrants reaching the U.S. this year came as President Joe Biden’s administration pressured the nation to help secure the southern border.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas led a U.S. delegation to meet with then-Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other officials in December 2023.
The result is that, for months now, Mexican authorities have rounded up migrants, busing and flying them to the southern cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula, far from the U.S. border.
Mexico also increased the number of security officials at checkpoints who intersected migrants attempting to reach the U.S. border, heavily patrolled major transit areas, and stepped up the number of migrants pulled off northern-bound freight trains. By January, apprehensions at the border had dropped by 50% from the previous months.
Many of these migrants remain stranded in Mexico and have alleged abuse by local law enforcement authorities that have prevented them from reaching the U.S.
The conversation between the two leaders comes after Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from Mexico unless it stemmed the flow of migrants and drugs into the U.S.
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“This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump said in a Monday social media post. “Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
