Yesterday we reported Ken Cuccinelli’s enthusiasm that apprehensions at our southern border were decreasing at a rapid rate in the last three months. After a meeting with the White House yesterday, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said there has been a “significant decrease’ in U.S.-bound immigration through Mexico, especially from Central America, and he expects the trend to continue” according to Reuters.
In a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, followed by a “brief exchange with President Donald Trump, to review progress in efforts to curb a surge in Central American migrants” Pence “acknowledged Mexico’s efforts.” Ebrard said in a news conference “Mexico’s strategy of putting more than 25,000 National Guard militarized police along its borders and stepping up raids on people traffickers has been a success.”
In June of this year, Mexico pledged to “take a series of steps to contain migrants” and agreed the two countries would review the efforts in 90 days. This occurred after President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all of Mexico’s goods.
This month U.S. officials and Trump have “praised Mexico and Central American countries for helping cut U.S. border arrests by nearly 60% from earlier in the year.” In the 2016 elections, Trump aggressively pledged to attack the problem of illegal immigration and drugs coming in from Mexico. As Reuters reports, “the Mexican government has persistently argued that disputes over U.S.-Mexico border security are a shared responsibility.”
