From January 20th, when Donald Trump takes office as president of the United States, “the worst will come on the southern border for the thousands of migrants who are in Tapachula,” in addition, “there will be massive deportations” from the neighboring country to the north, warned Wilner Metelus, president of the Citizen Committee in Defense of Naturalized and Afro-Mexicans.
He said that “Donald Trump’s pressure on the Mexican government to stop the migration of people on the southern border is worrying,” in order to fulfill his campaign promises.
He added that the Mexican government, which “does not have a well-defined strategy on the immigration issue, should not fall into the provocation” of the next American president.
In a telephone interview, he said that Mexico does not have the capacity to control the immigration issue on the southern border, so the participation of the governments of the region is required to solve the problem.
Metelus said that “Trump is most interested in security, economics and drugs, but Mexico can only negotiate on migration, since it cannot resolve the drug issue, since the big drug traffickers are in the United States, in addition to the fact that the arms business is in the United States, in addition to the fact that it is a protectionist country.”
He stressed: “Trump is racist, he wants to impose his project and the Mexican government with President Claudia Sheinbaum is negotiating with him on the issue of migrants. The Migration agents and the National Guard continue with the policy of detaining migrants and the worst is yet to come with the arrival of the new president, who will continue with his plan to militarize the southern border of the United States.”
He pointed out that after January 20th “we will see agents of the United States National Guard on its southern border to pressure the Mexican government with the detention of migrants, for whom the situation will be very difficult.”
He considered that “those who will benefit most from a new pact are the criminals; we are already seeing kidnappings by criminal groups against migrants and Mexico will continue with deportations.”
Wilner called on human rights defenders to continue supporting migrants, in addition to the fact that “the solidarity of the international community is also urgent.”
He announced that next Thursday at 9 in the morning he will go with other people to the National Palace “to deliver a letter to request an audience with President Sheinbaum, in order to talk about the issue of Haitian, African and migrants from other countries in Mexico.”
Original article by Elio Henríquez, Cuarto Poder, December 4, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.