Mexico’s leader responded to Trump’s statement that she agreed to stop migration

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appeared to contradict President-elect Donald Trump’s claim that the two had reached an agreement to stop migration to the US border.

After Wednesday’s call, Trump posted online: “She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”

Sheinbaum quickly responded that she reiterated Mexico’s position is not to close the border but to address migration while respecting human rights.

On Monday, Trump warned America’s trading partners when he announced that upon taking office in January he would impose overall tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada, and a 10% tariff on China.

He said import tariffs on Mexico and Canada will only be lifted when illegal immigration and drug trafficking to the US ends.

He said China will have to pay taxes until it can crack down on fentanyl drug trafficking.

Sheinbaum vowed earlier on Wednesday to retaliate if the US causes a trade war.

“If there are US tariffs, Mexico will also increase tariffs,” she said at a news conference.

She was joined by Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who urged more regional cooperation.

“It’s a shot in the leg,” Ebrard said of Trump’s proposed missions, which appear to violate the USMCA trade agreement that Trump himself signed in 2018 during his first presidential term between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

However, after the phone call with Trump, Sheinbaum initially posted on X that the two had “a great conversation.”

“We discussed Mexico’s strategy regarding the migration phenomenon and I shared that [migrant] Caravans are not coming to the northern border because they are being cared for in Mexico.”

Trump later used his social media platform Truth Social to offer a slightly different interpretation of what was agreed upon during their conversation.

“Mexico will stop people from coming to our Southern Border, effective immediately,” he wrote.

Sheinbaum then returned to X to say that she had “explained it to him [Trump] comprehensive strategy that Mexico has followed to address the migration phenomenon, respecting human rights.”

“We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples,” she added.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held an emergency meeting Wednesday with 10 provincial premiers to discuss how to respond to Trump’s tariff threat.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland later said the federal government and the premiers had agreed to present a united front on the issue.

However, there were signs of division when Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressed concerns about whether Trudeau was the best person to negotiate with the incoming US president.

“I don’t think we should underestimate the personal animosity between these two leaders,” she told CBC.

“And if he [Trudeau] is not the right person to sit at the negotiating table, we need to make sure it is the right person.”

Mainland Chinese authorities have yet to directly comment on the 10% tariffs promised by Trump.

However, a Chinese embassy official in Washington said no one will win in the trade war.

Illegal immigration became a burning issue in the 2024 White House election race, culminating in Trump’s landslide victory this month. He campaigned with a promise to block the US-Mexico border.

After an unprecedented wave of millions of undocumented immigrants became politically toxic for the Democratic Party, outgoing US President Joe Biden introduced restrictions during the election cycle. This election is intended to sharply reduce illegal border crossings.

Under U.S. diplomatic pressure, Mexico has launched its largest-ever migrant crackdown, busing and shuttling non-Mexican migrants to the south of the country, far from the border. United States world.

This job exhausted the migrants, leaving them without money to continue their journey.

Thousands of people have been so frustrated by repeated experiences of so-called internal deportation that they have voluntarily requested to be deported to their home countries.

When Trump takes office, he will inherit a situation in which fewer undocumented migrants have been apprehended at the US southern border than at any other time in the past four years.