Mexico’s leader responds to Trump’s claim that he has agreed to freeze immigration

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appeared to oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal that the two make an agreement to stop immigration at the American border.

After the call on Wednesday, Trump posted online: “He has agreed to stop immigration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern border.”

Sheinbaum quickly responded by reiterating that Mexico was not about closing the borders, but about dealing with migration while respecting human rights.

On Monday, Trump spooked America’s trading partners as he vowed to take office in January to impose 25% across-the-board tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and 10% on China.

He said the import duties in Mexico and Canada will only be removed once the immigration and drug trafficking in the US is stopped.

He said China will be taxed until it completely eliminates the trafficking of the drug fentanyl.

Sheinbaum vowed earlier on Wednesday that he would retaliate if the US started a trade war.

“If there are US tariffs, Mexico will also raise prices,” he told a press conference.

He was joined by Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who called for regional cooperation.

“It’s a shot in the foot,” Ebrard said of Trump’s proposed duties, which appear to violate the USMCA trade agreement that Trump himself struck in 2018 during his first presidency between the US, Mexico and Canada.

After the phone call with Trump, however, Sheinbaum began tweeting on X that the two had a “very good conversation”.

“We discussed Mexico’s strategy regarding the possibility of migration and I shared that [migrant] the caravans do not reach the northern border because they are taken care of in Mexico.”

Trump later took to his social media site, Truth Social, to offer a slightly different interpretation of what was agreed upon during their conversation.

“Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, and work immediately,” he wrote.

Sheinbaum later returned to X saying that he had “explained to him [Trump] the comprehensive strategy that Mexico has followed to deal with the problem of human migration, is to respect human rights”.

“We emphasize that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between people,” he added.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held an emergency meeting Wednesday with the premiers of 10 provinces to discuss how to respond to Trump’s tariff threat.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said after that the federal government and the prime minister agreed to present unity on this issue.

There were signs of division, however, as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressed concern over whether Trudeau was the best person to interview the incoming US president.

He told the CBC: “I don’t think we should underestimate the animosity between the two leaders.

“And if he is there [Trudeau] He is not the right person to have at the negotiating table, we need to make sure that he is the right person.”

Authorities in Mainland China have not commented directly on the 10% tax promised by Trump.

But China’s top diplomat in Washington said no one would win a trade war.

Illegal immigration has been a major issue in the 2024 White House election race that culminated in Trump’s victory this month. He campaigned on a promise to close the US-Mexico border.

After the unprecedented influx of millions of undocumented immigrants became a political threat to Democrats, outgoing US President Joe Biden introduced restrictions in this election cycle that greatly reduced illegal crossings.

Under pressure from U.S. officials, Mexico has been conducting its largest-ever crackdown, busing and flying non-Mexican migrants to the south of the country, far from the U.S. border.

This practice depletes the energy of weary migrants, leaving them with no money to continue their journey.

Thousands have been so defeated by the repeated experiences of this so-called internal exile, that they have voluntarily asked to be exiled from their own nations.

If Trump takes office he will inherit a situation where fewer undocumented immigrants are being arrested at the US southern border than at any other time in the last four years.