U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to double tariffs on Mexico unless it stops more than a thousand migrants who are walking north towards the United States, warning that they will be denied entry.
“Here we go again!” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday. “They will not be accepted! MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED.”
He added that Mexican authorities, the governor of Texas, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had all been informed, and that “there will be no leniency”.
An estimated 1,500 people, mostly from Central America, set off on Tuesday from Tapachula, a city in southern Mexico near the border with Guatemala.
Many hope that the Democrats’ victory in last week’s midterm elections, which gives the party control of Congress from January, could open new legal pathways for them to live and work in the United States.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged that a group of people was heading north. She said, however, that no migrant caravan had reached the U.S. border since Trump returned to power.
Speaking at her regular press conference, Sheinbaum said the migrants had been told how difficult it is to enter the United States and that Mexico was seeking to return them to their home countries.
“There will be no acts of repression,” she said.
Some local media have reported that authorities in the southern state of Chiapas turned back migrants who were trying to join the group this week. Mexico’s migration institute and the Chiapas state government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin backed Trump’s warning. “This illegal migrant caravan will NOT be allowed to enter our country. Full stop,” he wrote on social media.
The threat comes as Washington and Mexico City negotiate a new trade agreement after Trump decided in July not to extend the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies have largely stopped the flow of migrants to the U.S. southern border, leaving many shelters in Mexico empty.
Concern over the border helped Trump win a second term in 2024. In recent months, however, he has said the issue has become less politically powerful for him and his fellow Republicans.
After the 3 November midterms, Trump told reporters he was sure the newly elected Democratic governor of Texas, Gina Hinojosa, would “want to have security at the Texas border”.
He has also acknowledged a political backlash against his administration’s deportation programme. On Sunday, Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes that the deportation force had been “too tough” and that he was open to an immigration deal with Democrats once they take control of Congress.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to double tariffs on Mexico unless it stops more than a thousand mig...
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Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 11 November. Today, we cover Russia-Ukraine peace talks, political tensions in Washington, strikes in Spain, espionage allegations involving Nvidia's CEO, and climate negotiations at COP31 in Türkiye.
More than 333,000 people have been forced from their homes in Yemen since the beginning of August as fighting has escalated, including more than 24,000 in the past week alone, the United Nations said on Thursday.
A court in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad has sentenced human rights lawyer Maria Bontsler to 12 years in prison on treason charges, after prosecutors accused her of passing sensitive information to Ukraine.
A gunman shot dead his building’s manager and wounded four other people in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, before barricading himself inside his apartment and taking his own life after a standoff with police, officials said.
European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is stepping down amid reports linking him to a woman suspected by U.S. authorities of spying for China, throwing the future of the $4 trillion chipmaker into uncertainty.
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