Nancy Caouette
23 February 2017•Update: 23 February 2017
By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
Mexico will not be forced to accept conditions regarding immigrants imposed by another country, President Enrique Pena Nieto said Wednesday, just hours before he welcomed top U.S. Cabinet officials to Mexico City.
“Mexico does not accept impositions of any country in the matter of migration,” Pena Nieto said in an interview with local media outlet Impacto El Diario.
His comments were in response to U.S. Department of Homeland Security memos Tuesday that said U.S. border agents would return undocumented immigrants to Mexico if they entered the United States from there, regardless of their country of
The policy has drawn the ire of the Mexican government that was already angered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S.’s southern border and Mexico to pay for it.
Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Videgaray said Wednesday that Mexico would not accept the new rules.
“I want to say clearly and emphatically that the government of Mexico and the Mexican people do not have to accept provisions that one government unilaterally wants to impose on the other,” Videgaray told reporters, adding that he would not hesitate to raise the issue with global organizations.
“Let’s be clear: Mexico and the government of Mexico will not hesitate to turn to multilateral organizations, beginning with the United Nations, to defend, in accordance with international law, human rights, freedoms and due process in favor of Mexicans abroad,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security chief John Kelly arrived late Wednesday to hold meetings with a number of Mexican officials, including Peña Nieto.
Along with the new immigration policies and the border wall, meetings are expected to address Trump’s promise to walk away from the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, and the U.S.
