Mexico Tightens Southern Border Security as Another Day Passes with No Tariff Deal

Trump last week pledged to impose 5% tariffs on Mexican products on June 10 unless Mexico stops Central American migrants from traveling through its territory.

US and Mexican officials met for a second day on Thursday to avert the tariffs, but have not reached an agreement.

The US vice-president, Mike Pence, said in Pennsylvania on Thursday that the US was “encouraged” by Mexico’s latest proposals but that, so far, tariffs still were set to take effect on Monday.

He added that it would be “for the president to decide” whether Mexico was doing enough to head off the tariffs, the Guardian reported.

Pence said that, among other issues, negotiators had been discussing a potential agreement to make it difficult for those who enter Mexico from other countries to claim asylum in the US. Mexico has long resisted that request.

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office six months ago promising to protect migrants’ rights and avoid doing the “dirty work” of any foreign government.

But as US officials reiterated Trump’s threats this week, their counterparts south of the border have made a show of taking steps to stem the flow of migrants streaming out of Central America.

Mexican immigration officials and navy marines corralled a caravan of Central American migrants on Wednesday, less than a day after it crossed into the country and had barely marched up the highway under the scorching hot sun.

The column of men women and children had barely walked 12km on Mexican soil before it was stopped; previous caravans have successfully travelled nearly 4,000km across the length of the country to the US border.

 “We have the full right to do it, we’re a sovereign country, we have migratory laws, which we have to apply and have to be respected,” said interior minister Olga Sanchez Cordero.

On the same day, police arrested two members of the migrants’ rights organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People without Borders), which coordinates caravans crossing Mexico.

Pueblos Sin Frontera said the detentions followed a pattern of harassment from the authorities in both countries against individuals assisting migrants and an attempt at “criminalizing” the caravans.

On Thursday the finance ministry’s financial intelligence unit announced it had blocked the accounts of 26 people for “their probable link with human trafficking and illicit support of migrant caravans”.

Recent weeks have already seen a proliferation of immigration checkpoints in southern Mexico and police raids on migrant centers.

A string of caravans – some of them as many as 5,000 people – have set out from Central America over the past year. Caravan members have told reporters that large numbers offer safety from bandits and corrupt police officers and that the groups coalesced organically, often after they were promoted on social media.

But the Mexican government fears Trump’s tariffs will damage the manufacturing-for-export economy.

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