UPDATE, 9:09 PM EDT: President Trump has announced on Twitter that the United States has reached an agreement with Mexico:
….stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States. Details of the agreement will be released shortly by the State Department. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2019
Original article:
When President Trump announced his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico that would gradually increase until they did something to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, many on the left and right were critical of the plan and said it wouldn’t work.
It looks like Trump proved the skeptics wrong, as ongoing talks with Mexico to avoid the tariffs have yielded significant progress.
With just days to go until the Trump administration is set to impose punishing tariffs on Mexico unless the country halts the unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border, numerous signs that Mexico would capitulate emerged Thursday — but it remained unclear Friday morning whether their efforts would satisfy the White House.
Reports in the evening indicated that Mexico’s negotiators with Washington have offered to immediately deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Guatemala. Additionally, Mexico has reportedly agreed to a major overhaul of reasonable asylum protocols, which would require asylum applicants to seek permanent refuge in the first country they arrive in after fleeing their home countries.
Despite this proposal, an agreement with Mexico to prevent the tariffs has not yet been reached. Administration officials told Fox News that talks are going well, but as of right now, the tariffs will still take effect on Monday. Even though a deal has not yet been reached, this proposal from Mexico suggests that Trump’s tariff threat is doing exactly what Trump said it would do: force Mexico to do something about the flow of migrants through their country into the United States.
According to the report, Mexican authorities also “blocked the advance of about 1,000 Central American migrants who were walking north along a southern Mexico highway on Wednesday, once again showing a tougher new stance on attempts to use the country as a stepping-stone to the U.S.”
_____
Matt Margolis is the author of The Scandalous Presidency of Barack Obama and the bestselling The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. His new book, Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy, will be published in July 2019. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
Join the conversation as a VIP Member