Mexico Rejects Supreme Court Ruling on Migration, Wants No Tensions With U.S.

Mexico’s government on Thursday said it disagreed with a ruling by the Supreme Court which granted a request by the Trump administration to fully enforce a new rule that would curtail asylum applications by immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“This is the ruling by the court, it’s a U.S. issue, and obviously we don’t agree with it, we have a different policy,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a regular news briefing.

Mexico’s government has consistently argued that migratory pressures should be alleviated by helping to develop the countries that send the bulk of migrants north, the Central American trio of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Ebrard said he expected the number of U.S.-bound migrants, which has fallen in the last three months, to drop further, and that it was in his country’s interest to avoid tensions with Washington on migration in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been at pains to avoid antagonizing Trump over trade and migration, mindful of the fact that Mexico sends around 80% of its exports to the United States.

Following threats by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports, Mexico on June 7 pledged to take a series of steps to curb migration, and the two governments agreed to review that effort after 90 days.

Ebrard held talks with senior U.S. officials in Washington on Tuesday to review those efforts, and afterwards said the country was a long way from facing tariffs.

Lopez Obrador and his U.S. counterpart, Trump, spoke by telephone on Wednesday. Speaking at the same news conference, Lopez Obrador said the call was fruitful and there was nothing that would lead to the imposition of measures that would hurt the Mexican economy.