Before assuming office, Trump demands Mexico halts the caravans immediately
Even ahead of the U.S. polls opening on Tuesday, a group of immigrants, at least 5,000 strong, began a journey from southern Mexico towards the U.S. southern border.
Their goal: to see if the new Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, will use the military to stop them now that the American election is over.
Also at stake in this latest caravan movement is the fate of hundreds of thousands more gathered in southern Mexico, with thousands more entering Mexico from Guatemala daily, potentially following the vanguard in a massive human wave that could last until Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Trump, however, is not waiting. Just a day before the caravans set off and he won the election, Trump threatened significant tariffs on Mexican exports if Sheinbaum allows the caravans to reach the border before his inauguration.
“I’m going to inform [Mexico’s president] on day one or sooner that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send into the United States of America,” Trump declared at his Raleigh, N.C. rally on Monday.
“If that doesn’t work,” he added. “I’ll make it 50, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 75. Then I’ll make it 100.”
Recent history indicates that Trump’s warning could prevent a sudden rush to the border during the transition period, and more.
In December last year, President Joe Biden made a deal with Mexico City to address the congested border, resulting in a significant decrease in illegal border crossings.
However, the future of this operation post-American election remains uncertain, especially for the trapped immigrants eager to enter before Trump assumes office.
Trump’s tariff threat is not to be taken lightly, given Mexico’s economic reliance on U.S. exports. Mexico has surpassed China as the U.S.’s largest trading partner, with record-high exports reaching billions of dollars in recent years.
Sheinbaum, a liberal progressive, may be inclined to pass the migration issue to the U.S., following the footsteps of her mentor, former President AMLO, who yielded to Trump’s tariff threats in 2019.
Will Sheinbaum heed Trump’s tariff threat? She’s being cagey so far, saying only that Trump’s election was “no cause for concern.”
The next few months will prove if that’s true.
Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, is the author of “Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History.”
