Trump Wall Debate an Internal U.S. Matter: Mexico President

1/9/2019 – The New York Times

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that he would not get involved in discussion of the wall that U.S. President Donald Trump wants to build at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the subject is an internal U.S. political matter.

Speaking at a daily news conference, Lopez Obrador, who took office in December, pointed to U.S. electoral politics when asked if he would comment on Trump’s latest bid to secure funding for his planned southern border wall. [nL1N1Z80C3]

(Reporting by Delphine Schrank, editing by Dave Graham)

Read more…

Advertisements

The U.S. sends thousands of deportees each month to Mexico’s most dangerous border areas

1/8/2019 – The Washington Post

REYNOSA, Mexico — The deportees arrive after dark, usually between 100 and 200 of them, deposited by U.S. immigration officials at a bridge that connects the United States to one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico.

Many of the deportees, all Mexican, have been living illegally in the United States for years, and they don’t know Reynosa’s reputation. It is the least secure city in Mexico, according to a government survey. It is in a state, Tamaulipas, that is the only place along Mexico’s northern border to carry the State Department’s most severe travel warning, putting it in the same category as Afghanistan and North Korea.

From 2017 to 2018, the number of homicides more than doubled to 225 in the city of 600,000. At least another 2,500 people are missing. Criminal groups enrich themselves through kidnapping and extortion, with migrants among their most common targets.

Read more…

Democrats demand air time to counter Trump’s border speech

1/8/2019 – The Hill

By Jordain Carney

Democratic leaders are demanding “equal airtime” for a response to President Trump‘s presidential address planned for Tuesday night.

“Now that the television networks have decided to air the President’s address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime,” Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in a joint statement on Monday night.

All major networks have confirmed they will air Trump’s Oval Office address, after some initial uncertainty over how the organizations would handle the speech announced Monday. CBS said in a statement to The Hill that the White House informed the network it will last no longer than eight minutes.

Read more…

Trump to take case for border wall to prime-time audience

1/8/2019 – The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will argue to the nation Tuesday night that a “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he’s demanding before ending a partial government shutdown that has hundreds of thousands of federal workers fearing missed paychecks on Friday.

Trump’s first Oval Office speech will be followed by a Thursday visit to the southern border to highlight his demand for a barrier. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that he will “meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis.”

The administration is also at least talking about the idea of declaring a national emergency to allow Trump to move forward on the wall without Congress approving the $5.6 billion he wants. Vice President Mike Pence said again Tuesday that the idea of making such a declaration remains on the table.

Read more…

Mexico to allow some foreign migrants back in as U.S. immigration cases processed

12/20/2018 Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that it would allow some non-Mexican migrants back into the country temporarily for humanitarian reasons while they have their U.S. immigration status processed.

The ministry statement said that the U.S. government told Mexico it planned to implement a section of its immigration law that would allow it to send non-Mexican migrants back to Mexico.

Read more… 

Shunning Wall Talk, AMLO Wants Trump to Aid Central America

12/13/2018 – The Washington Post

By Nacha Cattan

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador chose not to respond to the U.S. president’s provocations about paying for a border wall and insisted Donald Trump pay to aid Central Americans.

Lopez Obrador, or AMLO as he’s known, said he didn’t discuss the wall in his first phone call with President Trump the prior evening. Instead, he called on Trump to join Mexico in the nation’s pledge to pay $5 billion next year to stem migration through jobs and development programs in Mexico and Central America after Trump tweeted that Mexico would pay for the wall.

Trump “invited me, and I’m also able to go to Washington, but I think for both him and me, there needs to be a motivation, and the most important one would be to sign this accord” to fund Central American development, Lopez Obrador said at a press conference Thursday. “I consider this to be more important, or as important, as the free trade agreement.”

Read more…

Trump, New Mexican President Discuss Migration but Not Wall

12/13/2018 – The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The White House says President Donald Trump and the new leader of Mexico discussed “positive relations” between the two countries in a phone call this week. But Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters that he and Trump have never discussed the contentious topic of the border wall.

Lopez Obrador’s statement Thursday came less than an hour after Trump asserted in a tweet that Mexico was paying for the border wall through the savings the U.S. garnered in the renegotiated free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

The two leaders spoke by phone Wednesday about immigration and Lopez Obrador’s push for a Marshall Plan-like effort to spur economic development in Central America.

Read more…