Six weeks before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, the battle lines of the next phase of the Mexico-US relationship are quickly being drawn.
On November 25, the president-elect took to his Truth Social account to threaten both Canada and Mexico with 25 percent tariffs starting on day one of his second term. The duties are to remain in effect “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!” Until the two countries put an end to this “long simmering problem,” he warned, “it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
The following morning, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum led off her morning press conference by reading out the letter she had written in response. She began by pointing out a few statistics of which the president-elect was “probably not aware”: border encounters were reduced by 75 percent between December 2023 and November 2024, and half of those who did arrive had appointments procured through the US Customs and Border Protection’s app. “Even so,” she adds, “it is clear that we must jointly arrive at another model of labor mobility that is necessary for your country and to address the causes that lead families to leave their places of origin out of necessity. If just a percentage of what the United States allocates to war is dedicated to building peace and development, this mobility issue will be addressed in depth.”
The text then turns to Mexico’s work to address the fentanyl epidemic, pairing it with a discussion of illegal arms…
Auteur: Kurt Hackbarth
