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What Confrontation? Mexico Seeks a Compromise With Trump What Confrontation? Mexico Seeks a Compromise With Trump
(about 5 hours later)
MEXICO CITY — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said Friday that he would avoid getting into a confrontation with President Trump over his threats to impose tariffs on Mexico unless it stopped migrants from crossing into the United States. MEXICO CITY — From the moment he took office, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has studiously avoided a fight with President Trump, gambling that a conciliatory approach would tame the American president.
Mr. López Obrador said that he was dispatching a delegation to Washington, led by his foreign minister, to try to dissuade Mr. Trump from carrying out the threat. It certainly has not worked out that way.
Mr. Trump said Thursday that he would impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico starting June 10, and then gradually increase the tariffs to 25 percent unless the flow of undocumented migrants crossing through Mexico and into the United States “is remedied.” When Mr. Trump broke with years of American policy and international practices by forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their fates are decided, Mr. López Obrador, who campaigned on the promise of defending migrant rights, went along with it.
The Mexican president said that his envoys would present evidence to American officials that they have already been trying to slow the tide of migration, in the hope that diplomacy might quell the brewing storm. Amid Mr. Trump’s threats to close the American southwest border over illegal immigration, the Mexican authorities cracked down on migrant caravans and accelerated their efforts to detain and deport Central Americans and others trudging north toward the United States.
“I want to insist that we are not going to fall to any provocation,” Mr. López Obrador said. “We are going to act with prudence, with respect for the authorities of the United States, with respect for President Donald Trump.” Yet the warnings from Mr. Trump kept coming.
Now Mr. López Obrador, a lifelong champion of the poor, faces the most concrete threat yet from the American president — a vow to begin imposing tariffs on all Mexican imports in a matter of days.
And Mr. Trump’s cudgel comes attached to what analysts call a nearly impossible demand of the Mexican government: that it stop hundreds of thousands of migrants a year from fleeing poverty and violence across the region and making their way to the American border.
On Friday, Mr. López Obrador once more appealed to Mr. Trump, preparing to dispatch a delegation to Washington to urge diplomacy and try to dissuade Mr. Trump from carrying out his latest threat.
“I want to insist that we are not going to fall to any provocation,” the Mexican president said at his regular morning news conference. “We are going to act with prudence, with respect for the authorities of the United States, with respect for President Donald Trump.”
He added: “We think that all conflicts in bilateral relationships must be resolved with dialogue, with communication.”He added: “We think that all conflicts in bilateral relationships must be resolved with dialogue, with communication.”
He said he anticipated that in time, Mr. Trump would abandon his threat, “because these measures don’t suit the Mexicans nor the Americans.” The latest iteration of the awkward pas de deux between the two leaders began on Thursday, when Mr. Trump said in a tweet that he would impose the tariffs “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP.”
The tariffs are only the latest measure that Mr. Trump has threatened in response to what he calls an insufficient effort by the Mexican government to curb the flow of migrants, most of them Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence. Unlike earlier threats, this one came with a highly specific timetable: the tariffs start at 5 percent on June 10 and then increase each month, reaching 25 percent on Oct. 1.
In recent months, Mr. Trump has repeatedly warned that he might close the southwest American border as a punitive measure to coerce the Mexican authorities to increase migration enforcement. In April, he threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on cars assembled in Mexico. The threat stunned Mexican officials and Mexico’s business community, especially because it came on the same day that the ratification process began for the new North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Each time, Mr. López Obrador has adopted a measured posture, urging dialogue and counting on mutual economic interest to prevail. And so far, his bet has paid off, as Mr. Trump has stepped back from his threats. “The real issue here is the uncertainty that comes from dealing with a president that breaks all established rules,” said Carlos Elizondo, a professor in the School of Government at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico.
Mr. López Obrador said Friday that while his administration could employ “legal mechanisms” to forestall tariffs, he would eschew that tactic — for now. Mr. López Obrador said that his envoys to Washington would present evidence to American officials that they have already been trying to slow the tide of migration through Mexico, in the hope that diplomacy might quell the brewing storm.
“We’re complying with our responsibilities” in migratory matters, he said on Friday.
Mr. López Obrador took office in December, promising a shift away from what he said was his predecessors’ enforcement-first migration policy and toward a more humanitarian approach.
During his first few months in office, detentions and deportations by the Mexican authorities fell sharply when compared with the last few months of his predecessor’s term, even as the flow of migrants from Central America and elsewhere surged.
His administration largely accommodated the enormous migrant caravans that made their way north from Central America toward the American border, doing little to stop them from crossing Mexico’s highly porous southern border and allowing them to travel essentially unfettered across Mexican territory.
His administration even began to issue expedited humanitarian visas to Central Americans, which allowed them to work and travel anywhere in Mexico.
But the welcoming approach appeared to spur even more migration from Central America, with many migrants seeking to use Mexico as a way station on their way to the United States. The influx overwhelmed the resources of local governments along Mexico’s northern and southern borders and tested the patience of residents.
In the past two months, under pressure from Mr. Trump as well as from the Mexican authorities in border communities overwhelmed by the crush of migrants, the López Obrador administration has been ramping up enforcement efforts, restricting the movement of the caravans and rounding up an increasing number of undocumented immigrants.
Detentions and deportations rose sharply this spring.
In April, more than 20,600 migrants were detained and more than 14,900 were deported, a big increase from the previous month, when more than 12,700 were detained and more than 9,100 deported, according to Mexican government statistics.
The numbers continued to climb this month, with nearly 22,700 detained and more than 15,600 deported.
The Mexican government has also continued to cooperate with the Trump administration’s program to return asylum seekers to Mexico pending the outcome of their cases in the United States. Since the program began in January, more than 6,740 Central American migrants have been sent back to Mexico after applying for sanctuary at the United States border, the Mexican government said.
But none of this has succeeded in appeasing Mr. Trump.
The Mexican president said Friday that while his administration could try to employ “legal mechanisms” to forestall tariffs, he would eschew that tactic — for now.
“We want there to be dialogue, understanding, and that an agreement is arrived at without the need for a legal process,” he said. “What we want is to convince, persuade that free trade is convenient” to both countries.“We want there to be dialogue, understanding, and that an agreement is arrived at without the need for a legal process,” he said. “What we want is to convince, persuade that free trade is convenient” to both countries.
Mr. López Obrador took office in December, promising a shift away from what he said was an enforcement-first migration policy and toward a more humanitarian approach. Mr. López Obrador said that his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, would present data to American officials showing their efforts to control migration into and through Mexico. And just as importantly, he said, Mexican officials will emphasize that a problem like migration needs to be addressed at its roots — by strengthening the governments, economies and societies of the Central American countries from which the majority of northbound migrants are fleeing.
During his first few months in office, detentions and deportations by the Mexican authorities fell sharply, even as the flow of migrants from Central America and elsewhere surged. To that end, Mr. López Obrador and his envoys have for months been pressing an ambitious development plan for Central America and have sought the American government’s collaboration.
Initially, his administration largely accommodated the enormous migrant caravans that made their way north from Central America toward the American border, doing little to stop them from crossing Mexico’s highly porous southern border and allowing them to travel essentially unfettered across Mexican territory. “People don’t leave their villages for pleasure,” Mr. Lopez Obrador said on Friday. “They leave because of necessity, or because there aren’t job opportunities or because of violence.”
His administration even initiated an effort to issue expedited humanitarian visas to Central Americans, which allowed them to work and travel anywhere in Mexico. But Mr. López Obrador has not found a terribly receptive audience for his regional development plan in the White House.
But the welcoming approach appeared to spur even more migration out of Central America, with many migrants seeking to use Mexico as a way station on their way to the United States. The influx overwhelmed the resources of local governments along Mexico’s northern and southern borders and tested the patience of residents. Indeed, Mr. Trump, in another effort to punish the governments of Latin America for what he says has been an inadequate effort to curb migration to the United States, has moved to cut aid to the Northern Triangle countries of Central America — assistance that is designed to address the very factors that drive migration.
In recent weeks, under pressure from Mr. Trump as well as from the local Mexican authorities, the López Obrador administration appears to have been ramping up enforcement efforts, getting tougher on the caravans, rounding up more undocumented migrants and increasing deportations. Mr. Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister, said on Twitter that a meeting between the Mexican delegation and American officials was scheduled for Wednesday. “We will be firm and will defend the dignity of Mexico,” he wrote.
While Mexican officials say they want to avoid a trade war, analysts say reciprocal tariffs against American goods imported to Mexico are likely should Mr. Trump follow through on his threat of tariffs.
“Of course, it will result in retaliatory measures by the Mexicans and it will be a race to the bottom that will hurt businesses and consumers on both sides of the border,” said Michael C. Camuñez, president and chief executive of Monarch Global Strategies, a binational consulting firm based in the United States and Mexico that focuses on trade and investment in Latin America.
The López Obrador administration has been a collaborative and willing partner with the United States in a range of areas, including trade and migration, Mr. Camuñez continued.
“I really don’t know what more we could reasonably expect from the Mexicans,” he said. “I think they’ve been constructive partners and they keep taking it in the face by a president who seems to be increasingly unhinged.”