Mexico Does Not Give in to Demands From U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. X/
April 1, 2025 Hour: 11:41 am
President Claudia Sheinbaum met with Kristi Noem on Friday.
On Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed that she did not sign an agreement to share biometric data of migrants and travelers with the United States, nor did she promise to militarize the border with Central America.
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She met with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Friday in Mexico City. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Noem stated that she gave Sheinbaum “a list of things that President Donald Trump would love to see.”
Clarifying what happened, Sheinbaum assured that she only signed the renewal of a memorandum of understanding agreed upon in 2022 to share information between the customs agencies of both countries.
“In the case of biometric data, I explained to the Secretary that we do not have a biometric data identity system in Mexico. In any case, that would have to be part of a working group. That is why the second agreement was not signed,” the Mexican president said.
Sheinbaum also told the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security that the best way to address migration at the southern border is not by militarizing the territory but by creating a development hub between Guatemala and Mexico. “That would be better than having soldiers all along the southern border.”
Currently, the Mexican president seeks to build two industrial centers in Tapachula, the largest city on the southern border, and to extend the Interoceanic Train to Guatemala.
“In any case, we are working on the humanitarian rescue of migrants throughout the country and explained the policy we have been implementing for some time,” Sheinbaum added.
The Sheinbaum-Noem dialogue takes place on the eve of President Trump’s new trade measures, as he has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada if fentanyl trafficking and the flow of migrants into the United States are not reduced.
“It must always be repeated because it cannot be forgotten: we coordinate, but we do not subordinate. The president answers to only one authority: the people of Mexico,” Sheinbaum stressed.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
