MEXICO CITY _ Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard plans to review the progress of the nation's efforts to stop undocumented migration with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit to Washington in early September.
President Donald Trump in June indefinitely suspended tariffs after Mexico committed to accepting more asylum seekers as they await their U.S. cases and step up border security. The demands came after detentions of people at America's southern border, most coming from Central America, more than tripled from last year.
The countries had agreed to evaluate Mexico's success after 45 and 90 days. Pompeo visited Mexico City in late July at the first check-in point, and Ebrard's visit would come at the second, around Sept. 6, Roberto Velasco, a spokesman for Ebrard, said in an interview. Pompeo's press office didn't immediately return an email seeking comment.
Mexico deployed 21,000 National Guard troops to the border, following the agreement with the Trump administration, and detentions by authorities on the U.S. side, a proxy for migration, dropped 46% to about 72,000 in July from almost 133,000 in May _ the highest since at least 2011. Pompeo last month said Mexico still needs to do more to deter illegal crossings.
In an interview with Bloomberg on July 29, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Mexico wouldn't agree to a so-called safe-third-country accord such as the one Guatemala reached with the Trump administration and Mexico was pressed to accept in June.
The deal means that Central American migrants claiming refugee status are required to apply for asylum in Guatemala rather than waiting to reach the U.S. Rights groups have questioned whether Guatemala is a safe place for refugees.
