Mexico and Canada began a wave of activities at its borders with the United States in a demonstration of the will to repress migrants before a deadline on which President Donald Trump threatened to impose punitive rates.
In the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez on the American border, workers began to fill a 300 -meter tunnel this week used to pass migrants to Texas. The 1.8 meter high tunnel, with electric wiring and ventilation, ran under the Río Bravo, also known as Rio Grande, from the center of Juárez next to a major highway. American agents said They had discovered it earlier this month.
Mexico has set up large air-conditioned temporary shelters for the deportees, while President Claudia Sheinbaum said that some non-Mexicans were among the thousands of migrants that Mexico brought in Trump’s first week. She had previously suggested that her country could accept non -Mexican migrants as an offering to Trump.
Canada has deployed newly rented Black Hawk patrol helicopters, additional dogs and 60 drones at its border with the United States as part of its response to Trump requests that the two countries limit the entry of illegal migrants and Fentanyl.
Canadian Minister for Public Security David McGuinty said their effort “involves political awareness, official awareness and operational awareness”, including this week with Trump Tom Homan’s Tsar border.
Mexico and Ottawa officials rushed to demonstrate an action after Trump threatened to impose 25% prices on their exports on February 1 if they have failed to reduce migration and trade Drugs.
If they are implemented, the threatened prices would send the two economies in the recession, increased supply chains in electronics cars and increase the prices of American consumers, analysts said.
Trump briefly announced punitive prices on Colombia last week after refusing to accept two military planes carrying deportees, but raised them when Bogotá quickly fell.
He also declared a national emergency at the American-Mexican border, sent 1,500 additional soldiers and canceled the legal entrance entries created by his predecessor Joe Biden, including an application for asylum applications.
The measures left thousands of migrants, including Argenis, a 26 -year -old Venezuelan who had hoped to find his brother in Texas, blocked in Mexican border cities.
“The videos appeared on Tiktok of people who serve their families. I was so excited to tighten my family in my arms too, “he told FT.
“”[Then] I was depressed. I even deleted my WhatsApp. I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
Trump placed the South American border in the heart of his three presidential campaigns, moving last year against record levels of illegal immigration under Biden.
Sheinbaum said on Monday that migration officials of the two countries had held several virtual meetings and concluded agreements, without offering more details.
Mexico brought about 4,000 migrants in the first week of Trump, an increase of approximately 3,700 per week, it resumed last year, according to government data.
Mexico had already increased the application of immigration to the demand of the United States for more than a decade. Last year, he intensified checks and detentions across the country, focusing on foreign bus migrants to the south.
Mexico is also under pressure on drug cartels that provide substances, including fatal fioing opioid in the United States. It is difficult to slow down this trade, with combined murders and disappearances in the country near the record summits.
The Minister of Security, Omar García Harfuch, said on Tuesday that since October, more than 10,000 people had been detained for high impact crimes such as murder and violent theft, and more than 90 tonnes of seized drugs.
The situation on the border of Canada with the United States differs from that of Mexico. Since June of last year, the American authorities have found around 100,000 people a month by illegally crossing Mexico, in our opinion Customs And border protection, but on the northern border with Canada, the figure was around 15,000 per month.
Canada said only about 1% of fentanyl in the United States is transported through its border. But that did not prevent Trump from threatening him, alongside Mexico. In recent months, Mexico and Canada have announced large drug busts.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, who will go to Washington DC to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, said that she would also speak with Mexico, the United Kingdom and the counterparts and the ‘ EU.
“At the heart of my conversations with my British colleagues and my European colleagues, you will be the question of how to answer the prices,” she said on Monday.
In December, Canada announced a CS of an additional $ 1.3 billion (US $ 900 million) to strengthen border security and the immigration system. It has increased patrols and surveillance along the border, which covers almost 9,000 km on earth and water.
Xavi Delgado, Canada Institute of the Washington DC Washington Center, “said:” It was an alarm clock for Ottawa. Trump expressed his frustration with regard to Canada for the United States to hold for granted. »»
Mexico and Canada have put pressure on the legislators and others in the president’s circle, arguing that prices would be a “losing” situation for the three countries.
Despite Trump’s repression, some migrants in Mexico remain full of hope. “I think of staying quietly here, while waiting,” said Gabriel, a 23 -year -old child from Venezuela, on the border. “I think that at any time, we will be able to cross legally, or something well will happen.”
