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News > Mexico

Mexico's AMLO Says He'll 'Act Prudent' To Border Closing

  • Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at his inauguration ceremony in Mexico City, December 1, 2018

    Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at his inauguration ceremony in Mexico City, December 1, 2018 | Photo: Reuters

Published 2 April 2019
Opinion

The Mexican president said he'd remain prudent in the face of Trump closing its southern border, but didn't want to speculate on the event.

Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) says he’s going to “act with prudence” regarding U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to shut their shared border.

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During his Monday morning daily public address, AMLO said he can’t talk about an issue that hasn’t happened and wouldn’t speculate about the possible border closure.

"If I answer that question (about the border stoppage),” the president told the audience at the presidential palace, “it is to spread rumors … and I prefer love and peace. I take this seriously. We must act with prudence," Lopez Obrador said to the audience.  

The president did not say if his administration had a contingency plan based on Trump’s next border move, but said his advisors suggest he be “prudent” about the matter that could cost Mexico millions of dollars in trade per day.

"We are not going to confront the government of the United States. I asked (my advisors) if they wanted us to be prudent and I believe that this is the best thing, to have a policy of friendship with the United States government, to be good neighbors and act with great prudence, not engaging in a confrontation, in a lawsuit," said AMLO.

On Sunday the U.S. administration under Trump reiterated the president’s continual threats to close its southern border this week if Mexico didn’t halt incoming undocumented people on its side of the fence.

Speaking to ABC's "This Week", White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney blamed Democrat Party members for what the administration is calling a ‘border crisis’ with Mexico as thousands of Central Americans refugees continue to seek haven in the U.S. in order to escape extreme poverty, unemployment, and death threats in their own countries.

"Faced with those limitations, the president will do everything he can. If closing the ports of entry means that, that's exactly what he intends to do," Mulvaney said. "We need border security and we're going to do the best we can with what we have."

During tweets and press events in Florida, March 29 the U.S. president said, “If they don’t stop them, we’re closing the border. … We’ll close it. And we’ll keep it closed for a long time. I’m not playing games. Mexico has to stop it,” threatened the head of state.

In 2017 some US$558 billion in goods flowed both ways across the U.S.- Mexico border. Any shut down, no matter how temporary, will affect these numbers for the worse.

Mexico's leader has been relatively complacent to Trump's immigration policies at the southern border. Mexican military-style police at ports of entry are refusing asylum seekers their legal right to cross into the U.S. and are helping U.S. border authorities limit the number of border crossings, according to the NY Times. 

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