Trump announces migration deal with Mexico, averting threatened tariffs

[Gman]

All I heard from the left is that 'nothing could be done' and 'this will only cost American jobs'. Great job Mr. President at being willing to force the issue and get Mexico off the trade gravy train and actually doing something about it.

Trump announces migration deal with Mexico, averting threatened tariffs

President Trump announced Friday night that a deal was in place that would avert threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico in exchange for that country's taking "strong measures" to curb the influx of Central American migrants at the U.S. southern border.

The agreement, which came just two days before Trump had vowed to impose a 5 percent, across-the-board tariff on one of the United States' top trading partners, called for the Mexican government to widely dispatch its national guard forces to help with immigration enforcement, with priority in the south, on its border with Guatemala, according to a joint statement.

In addition, the two countries would expand a program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), created this year, that allows the United States to return Central American migrants to Mexico while they await the adjudication of their asylum hearings in U.S. immigration court, a process that can take months.

The expansion of the program could result in tens of thousands of migrants waiting in limbo in potentially unsafe conditions in Mexico. MPP already has faced legal challenges, and while a federal appeals court panel in San Francisco has allowed it to temporarily continue while it reviews the policy, some judges have indicated that the MPP program might not be constitutional.

"I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended. Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border."

Mexican President Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador tweeted about the deal shortly after Trump, adding that he would still hold a planned rally in Tijuana on Saturday meant to "defend the dignity of Mexico."

"Thanks to the support of all Mexicans, the imposition of tariffs on Mexican products exported to the United States was avoided," he wrote.

At the State Department, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters that the deal did not include a provision pushed by the Trump administration, known as a "Safe Third Country" agreement, that would have required asylum seekers to apply for refugee status in Mexico before reaching the United States, since it also is considered safe for asylum purposes.

"I think it is a fair balance because they had more drastic measures and proposals at the start and we reached a midpoint," Ebrard said.