Donald Trump threatens to send troops, cancel trade deal to stop migrant caravan

Mexico City/Guatemala City | President Donald Trump threatened on Friday (AEST) to scrap a crucial trade deal and send troops to the US southern border in response to a large caravan of Central American immigrants heading toward the United States.

In a series of tweets, Mr Trump said that if Mexico was incapable of stopping the immigrants, he would “call up the US Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”

Mr Trump also threatened to cancel a pending trade deal with Mexico that took more than a year to negotiate and is designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The badault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA,” Mr Trump said, referring to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

His threats came as an estimated 1500 members of the loosely organised caravan reached the Mexico-Guatemala border, with thousands more expected to arrive in the coming days. Mexican authorities have closed a border crossing near the town of Tapachula, and have ordered hundreds of federal forces to the area to help immigration agents guard popular illegal crossing points along the murky Suchiate River, which forms the international boundary between the two countries.

Advertisement

Dozens of federal police officers stood guard on the Mexican side of the river on Thursday. It was unclear whether the immigrants would try to rush the border, as they did at the Honduras-Guatemala border several days ago, or whether they planned to turn themselves in to border authorities with the hope that they will be granted entry. The immigrants appeared ready to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive in order to proceed together.

Mexican authorities have said that members of the caravan will be treated like anybody else seeking to enter Mexican territory: Those with proper documentation will be allowed to pbad while anybody entering the country “in an irregular manner” will be apprehended and returned to their home country.

Fleeing violence

Immigrants fleeing violence or other threats who seek refugee status to stay in Mexico will have to request it at the border and wait up to 45 days in immigration detention.

The Mexican government said it planned to ask the United Nations Refugee Agency, which has offices near the Mexico-Guatemala border, to help it process possible refugee applicants and “contribute to a humanitarian solution”.

Mr Trump’s demands sparked widespread anger in Mexico, with some complaining that it was a violation of Mexican sovereignty.

Mexico “should not do Trump’s dirty work”, tweeted filmmaker and activist Epigmenio Ibarra, who called for the free transit of the caravan through Mexico. Political scientist Genaro Lozano said on Twitter that Mr Trump’s pressure on Mexico “is terrible and unacceptable”.

In a radio interview, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray said Mr Trump’s tweets were “clearly politically motivated” and designed to generate support for Republican candidates before the midterm elections next month.

“They are aimed at his electorate,” Mr Videgaray said. “Rather than reacting, we have to put the tweets in context and not give them greater importance … we already have a lot of experience in expressions like this.”

International law

The last time a similar caravan of immigrants sought to cross into Mexico, in April, authorities gave participants short-term visas that allowed them to travel through Mexico and reach the United States border. Many of those immigrants said they intended to seek asylum in the US, and Mexican officials said that international law gave them the right to do so. Mexico’s actions at the time angered Mr Trump, who ordered National Guard troops to the US southern border.

Mr Trump did not elaborate on his threats to send soldiers to the border on Thursday. Federal law bars the military from conducting law enforcement activities on US soil, although National Guard troops have been used at the border in limited capacity by Mr Trump and under previous administrations, including in 2006 and 2010 under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Along with his warning that he is ready to engage the military, Trump has also threatened to withdraw aid from Mexico and the so-called Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala if the caravan is not stopped.

The caravan, which includes people fleeing violence and political repression as well as migrants in search of work, departed from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Saturday, crossed into Guatemala on Monday, and has continued to swell in size in the days since.

Many immigrants said they rushed to join the caravan after seeing it covered by news outlets last week. Like previous caravans, this one was designed to help protect immigrants from the dangers of the migrant trail, which include robbery, rape and badault. Many participants said it seemed safer and cheaper than hiring a smuggler.

Father Mauro Verzelleti, the director of the Casa del Migrante in Guatemala City, said that in the last day and a half, about 5000 immigrants mostly from Honduras arrived at his shelter. He opened emergency shelters in nearby elementary schools, but said that hundreds of people were still forced to camp in the street Wednesday night.

Jason Marczak, a Latin America expert at the Atlantic Council think tank, said the American response to the caravan must focus on “the push factors that force people to leave to begin with”, including high levels of poverty, corruption and violence.

“A strong border will not prevent people from leaving their communities when their lives are threatened,” Mr Marczak said.