Trump urges Mexico to halt migrant caravans

President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized Mexico for its immigration policy and said that it would be “very smart” if the US southern neighbor would halt migrant caravans heading northwards before they reach the US border.

“Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border,” Trump wrote on his Twitter account.

Trump also blamed the countries of Central America’s Northern Triangle, where the caravans originate, for allowing the outbound migration flows and accused them of taking advantage of the situation to rid themselves of “certain people.”

Trump tweeted that “... (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S. No longer). Dems created this problem. No crossings!”

The president’s tweets come after on Saturday The Washington Post reported that the US government and the team of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had come to an agreement whereby the migrants who want to request asylum in the US will remain in Mexico while those requests are considered.

However, a few hours after that reporting, Mexico’s incoming government secretary, Olga Sanchez Cordero, told EFE that no such agreement had been struck since Lopez Obrador will not take over as president until Dec. 1.

“We cannot make any pact, any agreement, because we’re not the government, but there certainly will be room for much more fluid and much more intensive collaboration and cooperation,” the minister told EFE after the inauguration of the International Guadalajara Book Fair.

According to Department of Homeland Security figures, some 7,000 migrants are currently waiting at the northern Mexican border - mainly in the cities of Tijuana and Mexicali - to be able to present their asylum requests to US authorities.