Trump Turns Mexico Into a Willing Partner to Help Deal With Border Issues

Add “make Mexico an ally in the border fight” to President Trump’s list of nigh-on-impossible victories.

NBCChicago.com:

Today, a year after the policy began, many other migrants have given up and gone back to the home countries they fled. Others, like the Perlas, became entrenched in Mexican life. The system known as the Migrant Protection Protocols helped change Washington’s relationship with Mexico and made the neighbor a key ally in President Donald Trump’s efforts to turn away a surge of asylum seekers.

This is a remarkable achievement that won’t be given enough praise largely because Mexico’s lack of cooperation in the past hasn’t been discussed enough.

As one who has lived near the border my entire life and written extensively about illegal immigration, one of my frequent laments was that the U.S. never leaned on the Mexican government for help in addressing border problems. It was a glaring failure of both Democrat and Republican presidents.

For example, George W. Bush was buddy-buddy with Mexican President Vicente Fox when both were in office. Fox was not only not an ally, but his government printed maps to aid Mexican citizens to sneak into the U.S. illegally.

It turns out that just a little leverage was all that was needed:

Rapid expansion of the policy was key to a June agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that led Trump to suspend his threat of tariff increases. The Republican president said at the time that Mexico was doing more than Democrats to address illegal immigration.

American officials praised President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government last week after security forces repelled a caravan of Honduran migrants on Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala.

“Mexico continues to be a true partner in addressing this regional crisis,” Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said on Twitter.

The article also says that “U.S. border authorities say the policy has contributed to a sharp drop in illegal crossings,” but unhinged open-border types continue to challenge the policy.

___

Kruiser Twitter
Kruiser Facebook
PJ Media Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.”