By Josh Zumbrun and Vivian Salama
The Trump administration has made significant progress in its border-security negotiations with Mexico, a senior White House official said, but the U.S. remained on track to impose tariffs on the country’s imports next week.
Mexico “came to the table with a few things they wanted to do immediately to try to stem the flow of immigrants,” this person said on Thursday, adding that the Trump administration is “encouraged by steps taken in the last few hours.”
The U.S. has called on Mexico to block more migrants at its southern border with Guatemala and to step up efforts against organized smuggling. It has also pressed Mexico to designate itself a “safe third country,” which would mean people entering Mexico from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador wouldn’t be eligible to claim asylum in the U.S. Absent a deal, President Trump has threatened to impose escalating tariffs on Mexico.
Among the options the Mexican delegation proposed were putting troops on their southern border, as well as proposed actions for additional drug interdiction, the official said. But the U.S. insisted that Mexico needed to help enforce U.S. asylum rules and strictly implement the “remain-in-Mexico” policy, which has migrants wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are adjudicated in the U.S.—as well as the safe-third-country concept.
After a second round of talks at the State Department on Thursday evening, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that his government was ready to deploy the country’s newly created National Guard to the border with Guatemala.
“We have explained that there are 6,000 men and that they will be deployed there,” he told reporters. Talks will continue on Friday, Mr. Ebrard added.
With Mr. Trump in Europe until late Friday and Vice President Mike Pence traveling, it was unclear if an agreement could be reached quickly between the two countries ahead of Monday’s deadline.
Mr. Pence said he had been briefed on the talks and said he was encouraged by the Mexican proposals. He said he would talk to Mr. Trump on Thursday night and over the weekend about the state of the talks.
Officials from the State Department took the lead in Thursday’s talks, and representatives from the White House counsel’s office were on hand for the discussions, the senior White House official said. U.S. trade negotiators didn’t take part in the talks as the administration sought to approach the discussion purely as one addressing the immigration crisis.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Thursday said: “[The U.S.] position has not changed, and we are still moving forward with tariffs at this time.”
Mexico wants more time to negotiate and would like to delay the tariffs as long as possible, a White House official said earlier Thursday. Mexico has been emphasizing economic development in the talks, while the U.S. has been focused on migration control.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday morning that the country’s delegation had presented a plan to address immigration issues to their counterparts in Washington, and said he was optimistic a deal would be struck to avoid the tariffs.
He also reiterated the need for actions to remedy the economic and social plight of Central Americans. The migration crisis “can’t be addressed closing borders,” he said. “It has to be addressed at the source of the social problem.”
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Trump said progress was being made in the talks but warned that Mexico must “step up to the plate” if it wants to head off tariffs planned for next week on $350 billion in imports. “Something pretty dramatic could happen in the coming days,” he told reporters in Shannon, Ireland, before heading to France for D-Day commemorations.
While negotiations continue, the plan to link the border talks with sweeping tariffs faces opposition from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D., Mass.) on Thursday said he would introduce a resolution of disapproval to block the tariffs if Mr. Trump moves ahead with them, calling the levies an “abuse of power” that would hurt American consumers and businesses.
Senate Republicans, though sharing Mr. Trump’s concerns about the border, are also contemplating a plan to try to block the tariffs in their chamber, citing their potential impact on the U.S. economy and what some see as executive overreach. If Congress passes such a measure, Mr. Trump could veto it, and it is unclear if lawmakers could muster enough votes to override the president.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) tweeted on Thursday that Mr. Trump “is trying to do everything he can considering the limited [money] he has for the border problem,” but that tariffs are “not the answer.”
Mr. Trump rejected the lawmakers’ criticisms Thursday morning, saying: “A lot of people, senators included, they have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to tariffs.”
The tariffs, which would be paid by U.S. importers of Mexican goods, would begin at 5% on Monday, double to 10% on July 1 and continue escalating to 25% by October. It would be the single largest imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration, exceeding any of those against China as well as the administration’s global tariffs on steel and aluminum.
If implemented, the tariffs could affect billions of dollars in imports, with major U.S. industries pulled into the trade fray, hitting about $34 billion of cars, $34 billion of trucks and buses, more than $14 billion of crude oil and about $14 billion of fruits and vegetables.
The last-minute talks come amid a surge in apprehensions at the southern border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities on Wednesday said they had apprehended 132,887 people at the border between official entry points in May, including a record 84,542 traveling in family groups and an additional 11,507 unaccompanied children. The total May apprehensions between official entry points mark a 34% increase from April.
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