Sunday, February 2, 2020

Mexico ‘Acting As Trump’s Border Wall’ Critics Say As Nation Cracks Down On Migrant Caravans

Photo: Jinitzail Hernández/CQ-Roll Call, Getty Images
Mexico is taking its own illegal immigration problem — caravans of thousands of migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, and elsewhere — seriously, cracking down on border-crossers at its own southern border, and now critics are convinced that President Donald Trump, unable to get a physical border wall built, has convinced Mexico’s president to be come his de facto “border wall.”
The Guardian reported Sunday that “Mexico has become Trump’s wall,” faulting Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador for increasing hostility among Mexican law enforcement agents toward migrant caravans.
Although Mexico was, initially, allowing these thousand-plus person caravans to cross its southern border on the promise that they would head directly to the United States’ southern border to seek amnesty, the Mexican government has since taken an active role in interdiction, blocking passage through Mexico’s southern border and even firing tear gas into unruly crowds of migrants trying to push through into Mexico.
“López Obrador’s government greeted migrants in a more hostile fashion,” the LA Times reported about incidents that occurred last week. “Mexican National Guard troops in full riot gear blocked their way and fired tear gas canisters to disperse those seeking to breach the nation’s border with Guatemala. Hundreds of people were put on planes and buses back to Honduras, where most of the migrants in the latest caravan began their journey.”
There were no major injuries, though there were around 800 arrests, according to reports. Before things got hostile, the Mexican government says they offered migrants work visas and the chance to remain in Mexico’s southern states, but the migrants refused.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.


No comments: