Donald Trump has been talking tough about Mexico and border issues since long before he became president.
Guess it’s working.
Over the weekend, a caravan of more than 2,000 migrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Central America entered Mexico at its southern border.
They didn’t get far.
“The group set out before sunrise Saturday from the town of Tapachula, Mexico, where many had been marooned for months unsuccessfully trying to get transit visas. They carried heavy backpacks, babies and parcels on their heads,” the Daily Mail reports. “Just before dusk, after having trudged more than 20 miles north, they were surrounded by hundreds of National Guard agents and police who persuaded the exhausted migrants to board vans back to Tapachula. Children cried, and women complained angrily about waiting months for papers. It was unclear if any would be deported.”
Several caravans have marched through Mexico all the way to the U.S. border. Trump has repeatedly complained that Mexico wasn’t doing enough.
Then he went further, threatening to cut off U.S. aid and raise tariffs until Mexican authorities cracked won. Trump told Mexico that starting June 10, the United States would impose a 5% tariff that would rise to 25% if no action took place.
“Mexico’s passive cooperation in allowing this mass incursion constitutes an emergency and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States,” Trump said in a statement. “Mexico has very strong immigration laws and could easily halt the illegal flow of migrants, including by returning them to their home countries. Additionally, Mexico could quickly and easily stop illegal aliens from coming through its southern border with Guatemala.”
“As president of the United States, my highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens. A nation without borders is not a nation at all. I will not stand by and allow our sovereignty to be eroded, our laws to be trampled, or our borders to be disrespected anymore,” Trump said.
Since then, the number of migrants crossing the border has dropped 56%.
