Mere hours after President Donald Trump threatened to levy a 5 percent (or higher) tariff on all Mexican imports until America's southern neighbor helps stop the deluge of illegal alien migrants across the Southwest U.S. border, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who’d previously told Trump to shove off, has apparently reconsidered his position – at least enough to talk about it.
According to Reuters, Obrador, or “AMLO” as he’s commonly known, is reportedly sending a delegation to Washington, D.C. on Friday to discuss the issue.
And, if his own words are to be believed, he’s not too happy with Trump’s tariff threat.
“President Trump, social problems are not resolved with taxes or coercive measures,” AMLO wrote in a statement, claiming that Mexican authorities “are fulfilling our responsibility to stop (migrants) moving through our country, as much as possible and without violating human rights.”
Trump announced his new tariff plan on Twitter late Thursday night that his administration would begin imposing a 5 percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico until Mexican authorities help put an end to the overwhelming flow of illegal alien migrants flooding across their border and into the United States.
"On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied," Trump tweeted.
The president promised to remove the tariffs if and when "the illegal migration crisis is alleviated through effective actions taken by Mexico, to be determined in our sole discretion and judgment."
The president's vow comes as the influx of illegal alien migrants streaming through Mexico from Central America and into the Southwest United States has ramped up dramatically in just the first few months of FY2019, reaching record levels not seen in more than a decade. U.S. border stations in the Rio Grande Valley Sector are currently housing around 8,000 illegal aliens at any given time, far beyond their facilities’ capacity.