Mexico is prepared to receive its nationals living in the US if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his deportation pledges, but it won’t serve as a “safe third country” for migrants of other nationalities.
President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration “is prepared to work in coordination with federal, state, and local authorities in the face of possible mass deportations,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement in response to questions from Bloomberg News.
Trump’s transition team has contacted the governments of Mexico and El Salvador through back channels about taking in some of the millions of undocumented migrants set to be expelled under his deportation plan, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Trump’s team and informal advisers have had detailed conversations with representatives of the two Latin American governments, in some cases via businesspeople, about taking back migrants, according to the people.
The incoming administration is seeking to prepare a broad understanding so that detailed work on deportations can begin immediately after he takes office.
Trump will have the difficult task of getting countries with which the US doesn’t have good relations — such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, or Cuba — to receive their migrants, as many of these countries don’t generally accept deportation flights.
Mexico, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said, “will not be a safe third country” for people of other nationalities, reiterating a position it held during Trump’s first term.
In 2019, then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador balked at an agreement that would have required Central American migrants seeking refugee status to file asylum claims in Mexico rather than waiting until they reach the US.
“We reaffirm the responsibility and obligation of the Mexican State to our fellow citizens so that they can have the confidence that they will be received in the manner they deserve in the face of present and future challenges,” the ministry said.
With information from Bloomberg
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