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Ground Truth Briefing | A Done Deal?: Addressing the U.S.-Mexico Migration Challenge

Join our experts BY PHONE for a Ground Truth Briefing on the migration challenge and implications of the agreement.

Date & Time

Thursday
Jun. 13, 2019
11:00am听鈥撎12:00pm ET

Location

BY PHONE

Overview

President Trump announced in early June that the United States would apply a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports until 鈥渢he illegal immigration problem is remedied.鈥 Mexico and U.S. officials worked on an agreement to delay implementation of the measure, and President Trump announced that the tariffs were 鈥渋ndefinitely suspended鈥 on June 7, 2019.听

The proposed tariffs are still on the table, however, pending an evaluation period of 45 days. In that time, Mexico has agreed to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to its southern border with Guatemala to reduce the number of migrants headed to the U.S. It also will take steps to dismantle illicit organizations and networks at the U.S.-Mexico border, and accept more migrants seeking asylum in the United States as they await the adjudication of their claims.

In this Ground Truth Briefing, experts discussed the migration challenge and implications of this agreement.

Selected Quotes

Alan Bersin:

鈥淪o in the short term, it鈥檚 claimed as a success for both. In the long term, it threatens something that is much more important 鈥 which is the strategic relationship between these two countries, each being critical for the other.鈥

鈥淭he first months of the L贸pez Obrador administration actually proved that in a situation where Mexico is now a transit country, and increasingly, a destination country as the world鈥檚 13th largest economy, that there needs to be a transition in Mexico.鈥

鈥淎t some point, President L贸pez Obrador is going to be compelled to respond to Mexican political opinion, and he will call the President鈥檚 bluff on tariffs. Because, in fact, yes, Mexican exporters will be harmed by tariffs, but the immediate pain is felt by American consumers and American farmers.鈥澨

Gretchen Kuhner

鈥淭here were some components about strengthening the U.S. asylum system as well. And I haven鈥檛 seen anything鈥bout what the benchmarks are within the U.S. and within Mexico. It鈥檚 just been suddenly, 鈥榃ill Mexico be able to detain and deport enough people so that the numbers go down on the northern border?鈥 So, very disturbing in terms of the way it was crafted through pressure against the Mexican government and I am not really sure what is going to happen next and I don鈥檛 know how to tell whether or not Mexico can comply because I don鈥檛 know what the benchmarks are.鈥

鈥淲e鈥檙e absolutely going to see an increase in human rights violations because if we already had so many many human rights violations and so many issues with kidnapping, with smuggling, with so many types of violence against migrants within Mexico with just an administrative body in charge of enforcement, what can we expect from people who haven鈥檛 been trained?鈥

鈥淵ou have to start somewhere. People are saying that people don鈥檛 want to stay, that they don鈥檛 want to request asylum in Mexico. Well, they鈥檙e not going to request asylum in Mexico especially if there is no place to request asylum or if you have nowhere to go after you do request asylum. I think there鈥檚 a lot of work to be done in that area as well.鈥

Gustavo Mohar

鈥淚 think we are on the verge of beginning to have a new regional migration reality between the U.S., Mexico and Central America. I hope that it will evolve in a more competitive and shared responsibility point of view, than what has been today: a very aggressive, unilateral demand from the Trump administration that forces Mexico to do a fundamental change, which is very subjective to measure, in the southern border of Mexico to stop, deter or diminish drastically the flow of undocumented Central Americans.鈥

鈥淏etween Mexico and the U.S., for many years, we found that working together was the best way to manage undocumented migration between our two countries.鈥

鈥淭he priority of the Mexican government today is fighting crime and giving their citizens security. So now because of the Trump way of imposing things, we had to divert these people to do these jobs instead of working together on finding the Mexico and U.S. a better way to deal with this crisis. I think that sharing responsibility is a win-win, and acting unilateral is a lose-lose.鈥

鈥淭his is a short-sighted policy. I will say that even though it is a very short time, it opens the space and opportunity for Mexico, the U.S. and Central America to work together to find a better deal 鈥 joint responsibility 鈥 and pass this crisis鈥 But let鈥檚 go now to the bottom end of this things and work together on all the issues 鈥 borders, security, trafficking, and economic development.鈥


Hosted By

Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis T茅llez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.听  Read more

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