Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, following her conversation with President-elect Donald Trump, appeared to break with his statements that she had agreed to stop migration into the United States, “effectively” closing the border, saying that her country’s “position is not to close borders.”
“In our conversation with President Trump, I explained to him the comprehensive strategy that Mexico has followed to address the migration phenomenon, respecting human rights,” Sheinbaum posted on X after Trump’s statements about their call, reports ABC News.
“Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are assisted before they reach the border,” she wrote. “We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples.”
Trump spoke with Sheinbaum on Wednesday after he announced plans earlier this week plans to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican imports on his first day as president.
He said the conversation was “wonderful” and “very productive” and that they’d talked about border control and how to fight the flow of illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl, across the border.
Sheinbaum confirmed the call, saying she and Trump had an “excellent conversation” and that they had discussed Mexico’s strategy on migrants.
“I shared that caravans are not arriving at the northern border because they are being taken care of in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said on X.
But Trump later posted that she had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
He added that “Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately. THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA.”
Sheinbaum agreed that she and Trump “discussed strengthening collaboration on security issues within the framework of our sovereignty and the campaign we are carrying out in the country to prevent the consumption of fentanyl.”
But she also fired back at his plans for the tariffs and warned that the ensuing trade war would hurt the United States.
“President Trump, it is not with threats nor with tariffs that migration and drug consumption in the U.S. will be dealt with,” Sheinbaum commented during a press conference while reading from a letter she sent to Trump. “These great challenges require cooperation and mutual understanding.”
The Mexican president also disputed claims Trump has made about migration and drugs and blamed fentanyl consumption in the United States for her country’s drug war.
“We don’t make guns, we don’t consume synthetic drugs,” said Sheinbaum. “Those killed by crime to meet the demand for drugs in your country are unfortunately our responsibility.”
Her comments were a change from former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s actions during Trump’s first term.
Trump threatened tariffs on Mexico and to shut the border in 2018, but he and Obrador negotiated a settlement that increased immigration enforcement in Mexico, with the support of the United States, leading to Trump dropping the threats.