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MEXICO CITY, Feb 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mexico began deploying the 10,000-strong border troop as promised to the US in exchange for deferring US President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff on exported goods.
“The deployment has already started,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters a day after announcing a last-minute deal with Trump to tighten measures against illegal migration and cross-border smuggling of the drug fentanyl.
Trump has long been threatening to impose a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico until they clamped down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and migrants crossing the border, in a move that would appear to violate a free-trade deal.
Meanwhile, Washington’s two neighbours have hit back by announcing reciprocal levies. Markets had slumped Monday after the weekend threats sparked fears of a global trade war.
Sheinbaum said Tuesday that troops had been taken from parts of the country that “do not have as much of a security problem.”
Last week, Mexico refused a request from Trump’s administration to allow a US military aircraft deporting migrants to land in the country.
US-Mexico relations have come into sharp focus since Trump started his second term with the declaration of a national emergency along the two nations’ shared border.
The president has declared Mexican drug cartels terrorist organisations and renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
In January, over 7,300 immigrants in the US were sent back home in handcuffs and shackles after the Department of Homeland Security began its mass deportation drive on President Donald Trump’s order.
While the deportation drive itself has invited criticism, the condition in which these immigrants were flown back home has been questioned and so has the use of military planes to carry out this operation. — NNN-AGENCIES
