Mexico’s foreign minister told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that his country has “concerns” about Mexicans living in the US as Washington ramps up its deportation policies.
“Our concerns are about the rights of Mexicans living in the US — the civil rights of Mexicans in the US,” said Luis Videgaray on Thursday after meeting with the two US officials in Mexico City.
He said President Trump’s sweeping immigration reforms could be harmful to Mexico and its people.
“There’s a concern among Mexicans, there’s irritation before what has been perceived as policies that might be harmful for the Mexicans and for the Mexican industry,” he said.
But Videgaray added that the two nations will continue to resolve their differences in further talks.
Tillerson echoed that sentiment, and said the initial discussions were “productive and forward looking.”
“Two strong sovereign countries from time to time will have differences,” he said. “We listened closely and carefully to each other and we respectfully and patiently raised our respective concerns.”
Tillerson said the meeting “reaffirmed” the close cooperation between the two countries on energy, legal migration, security, education exchanges and people-to-people ties.
He also said they discussed their joint commitment to “maintaining law and order” by preventing potential terrorists from crossing the border and dismantling criminal networks that move drugs and people into the US.
“No mistaking that the rule of law exists on both sides of our border,” Tillerson said.
On Wednesday, Videgaray blasted Trump’s planned crackdown that proposes sending illegal immigrants to Mexico even if they are from another country.
“I want to make it clear in the most emphatic way that the Mexican government and the people of Mexico do not have to accept provisions that one government unilaterally wants to impose on another,” he said.
Mexican officials fear this could lead to refugee camps being set up near the border, full of deportees with nowhere to go.
The plan also calls for deporting anyone charged with or convicted of a crime, potentially subjecting millions of illegal immigrants to the possibility of deportation.
It also makes good on Trump’s campaign vow to build a border wall on the country’s southern border and hiring 5,000 more Border Patrol agents and 10,000 extra Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.