President Trump announced Monday that he has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to block “large Caravans” of migrants from entering the US through the border with Mexico.
“Despite the Democrat inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one-sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country,” the president tweeted.
“We are the only Country in the World so naive! WALL,” he wrote, describing the US immigration policy as a “disgrace.”
“Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement,” he continued in a separate tweet.
“Our Country cannot accept what is happening! Also, we must get Wall funding fast.”
Mexico’s top diplomat quickly rejected the connection.
“Mexico decides its migratory policy in a sovereign way, and migratory cooperation with the United States happens because it’s in Mexico’s interest,” Secretary of Foreign Relations Luis Videgaray wrote.
The Trump Administration is seeking to negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, Mexico and the US.
In recent weeks, Trump has railed repeatedly about a group of about 1,500 migrants – mostly Hondurans and Guatemalans — that made a 2,000-mile trek to reach the Mexican border city of Tijuana.
Some members of the group have begun filing for asylum, which is technically a request for refugee status because they are not in the US, according to the Washington Examiner.
“Since yesterday, some began to cross into the United States to turn themselves in from Tijuana and request asylum. We understand more … will do the same,” Juventud 2000 Director Jose Maria Garcia, who is helping the migrants, told Reuters.
Trump recently approved the deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border.
His administration also has filed lawsuits against sanctuary cities, which don’t require local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws.