Trump and Sheinbaum Face Off: The Mexican President’s Call with the President-Elect Proves the U.S. Holds the Higher Ground; Mexico Seeks Deal with Trump to Avoid Deported Migrants from Other Countries

By admin On Dec 15, 2024

Trump and Sheinbaum Face Off

The Mexican president’s call with the president-elect proves the U.S. holds the higher ground.

After a sharp skirmish over tariffs and immigration, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum called President-elect Donald Trump to discuss future relations between the two countries. Both came out claiming victory: Trump, by noting Sheinbaum’s assurance that the Mexican government would move to stop the migrant caravans desperately trying to reach the U.S. border before the new administration—and consequently stricter border control—arrives; Sheinbaum, by telling her public that she made no new concessions in the face of Trump’s tariff threats. Both happen to be right, but a thorough examination of the situation shows that Trump is in a good position to get what he wants from Mexico whether Sheinbaum likes it or not.

It may come as a surprise to some, but Sheinbaum is correct that she did not make any new concessions to Trump by promising to stop migrant caravans on their way to the border ahead of his inauguration. The Mexican government has actually been engaged in disrupting migrant caravans in a number of ways for almost a year now. This is the result of pressure from the Biden administration, after Democrats finally realized in the lead-up to the election that their open-borders immigration policy was wildly unpopular with the public. The result was an attempt to lower the salience of the issue by reducing border crossings, including with the help of Mexico, as well as a brief attempt to pivot publicly towards being tough on the border (remember that supposedly bipartisan immigration bill?).

Unsurprisingly, voters didn’t buy it, but some of the efforts did reduce illegal immigration numbers from the ludicrous highs reached during the earlier period: the Border Patrol reported just 100,000 enforcement encounters at the southern border in September of this year, compared to over 300,000 in December of last year.

Sheinbaum’s argument that she made no new concessions allows her to save face before a Mexican public that has always nurtured a strong sense of resentment towards U.S. interference in their domestic affairs (as well as a strong antipathy towards the figure of Donald Trump). Yet the reality of extant Mexican cooperation with American border enforcement is proof of the leverage all American presidents have over their Mexican counterparts. Sheinbaum may have greater ideological affinity for the Biden administration, but she is not deploying scarce Mexican resources to disrupt migrant caravans out of the goodness of her heart. The Biden administration prefers a quieter approach towards Mexican diplomacy than Trump’s blustering threats of tariffs and future economic devastation, but ultimately they are simply different techniques for employing the same weapon: American economic power in Mexico. —>READ MORE HERE

Mexico seeks deal with Trump to avoid deported migrants from other countries:

Mexico is seeking an agreement with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to ensure it does not receive deportees from third countries in case of large-scale deportations of migrants from the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday.

The Bahamas rejected taking third-country deportees if Trump carries out his promised vast crackdown on immigrants in the U.S. illegally after he comes to office on Jan. 20. Trump’s incoming vice president, JD Vance, has floated the possibility of deporting 1 million people a year.

The Trump transition team has discussed deporting migrants to places other than their home country if those nations will not accept them, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The possible destinations could include Panama, Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, and Grenada, one of the sources said, confirming an NBC News report
, In late October, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told Reuters that Mexico could be an option.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mexico is looking to strike a deal with Trump, Sheinbaum told a press conference.

“We hope to reach an agreement with the Trump administration so that, in case these deportations happen, they send people from other countries directly to their countries of origin,” she said. Sheinbaum did not outright say that her government would refuse migrants from other countries.

NBC had reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Trump could use the threat of slapping Mexico with tariffs to get the Latin American country to comply.

Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis, meanwhile, said the Caribbean nation’s government had received and “firmly rejected” the request.

Panama’s government denied having received any sort of “official communication” so far, but said in a statement that it was not obligated to take third-country deportees.