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Mexico’s government
will consider legislation to accommodate U.S. demands to make Mexico a so-called safe third country for asylum seekers if it cannot stem migration flows in 45 days , Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday.
Ebrard said Mexico had agreed to consider a change in its legislation during talks with U.S. officials last week to avert the threat of U.S. tariffs on Mexican goods.
Mexico had resisted U.S. demands to become a safe third country, which would oblige migrants to seek asylum in Mexico if they passed through the country on the way to the United States.
Deployment of National Guard forces to Mexico’s southern border was due to start on Wednesday and will advance quickly under a migration control deal signed last week with the United States , Marcelo Ebrard said on Wednesday.
Mexico and the United States signed the deal on Friday, with Mexico agreeing to take steps to control the flow of people from Central America, including deploying 6,000 members of the country’s National Guard across its border with Guatemala .
“Starting from today, and in the coming days, the deployment is going to progress rapidly,” Ebrard said during a news conference with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador .
The deal averted escalating import tariffs of 5% on Mexican goods, which U.S. President Donald Trump had vowed to impose unless Mexico did more to curb illegal migration into the United States.
Mexico also agreed to a 45-day timeline to show that increased enforcement efforts were effective.
“A lot of things have to happen in 45 days,” Ebrard said. “We are going to do what we said we are going to do.”
Details of how much Mexico will spend on the new border security measures will be made public on Friday, Ebrard said.
López Obrador said some of the money needed to pay for the beefed-up migration program will come from selling the former presidential plane, at a minimum price of USD$150 million , and from the sale of other aircraft used in the prior administration.
Ebrard said Mexico implemented a working group with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to coordinate efforts at stemming the tide of people fleeing violence and poverty in Central America.
Mexico will meet on Friday with U.S. immigration officials to hammer out details of the new plan, he added, aiming to secure a commitment to faster asylum proceedings.
United Nations child relief agency UNICEF will be invited to provide assistance on the southern border, focusing on non-accompanied minors fleeing Central America, Ebrard said.
Yesterday, Francisco Domínguez , governor of Querétaro and chairman of the National Governor’s Conference (CONAGO) , announced that Mexico’s federal government would assign MXN$5 to 9 billion to northern states, aiming to stem the flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, the decision is yet to be confirmed by President López Obrador or the Ministry of Finance, led by Carlos Urzúa .
“The president and the Ministry of Finance will announce the official figures,” said the governor.
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