Trump Says Tariffs Got Mexico to Cooperate on Migration
There is more to the Mexico-U.S. deal than the troops heading to the Mexico-Guatemala border and larger numbers of asylum seekers staying in Mexico while they wait for their hearings, President Donald Trump told reporters on the White House lawn June 11. Reporters were asking about the secret element Trump tweeted about on June 10 (see 1906100012), and Trump continued to decline to reveal it, but implied it is an agreement to require asylum seekers to request asylum in the first safe country they come to.
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When a reporter asked directly if that's the secret part of the agreement, Trump said, "You can just figure it out yourself. That would have to go through their legislative body. I'm not going to say one way or the other." But, Trump said, "if they bring the numbers way down, we won't have to use it." Trump said U.S. officials tried to get more migration enforcement in Mexico for years, and his own administration had been asking for months without getting what it wanted. "As soon as I put tariffs on the table, it was done in two days," he said. "We're going to be a great partner to Mexico, because now they respect us."