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Donald Trump and López Obrador Anti-immigrant Agreements

By staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following June 10 statement from the Communist Party of Mexico.

The governments of the United States and Mexico have expressed, through the U.S. State Department, a reinforcement of the anti-immigrant policy, after a sainete (comic opera) in which tariff measures were feigned on the one hand, and a wave of patriotism on the other. At the end, after this staged farce, the real objective of the negotiation became clear.

On the same day that the Mexican Senate began the final discussion on the approval of the T-MEC or USMCA (a new version of NAFTA in force since 1994), President Trump announced that in retaliation for the Mexican government's weakness on the migration issue, tariff measures would be imposed on Mexico's exports. The issue of making Mexico a “safe third country” (an agreement that would require migrants to ask for asylum in the first country that they enter) has been on the agenda since December.

From that moment on, the government and President López Obrador himself made calls for “national unity” in defense of sovereignty, which is pure demagoguery, since the T-MEC and other collaborative measures, such as sending Mexican troops to participate with the U.S. Southern Command in the Tradewinds 19 exercises, are still in progress.

Sovereignty for the López Obrador government means defending the interests of the Mexican monopolies, while it does not care about the rights of the workers who are injured by this imperialist treaty.

But the talks between Pompeo, head of the U.S. State Department, and Ebrad, Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, have finally shown that what is being worked on is an interstate pact against migrants. Subject to the facts that may be disclosed in the next few days, the application of the “safe third country” policy cannot be ruled out, although we know that through the facts in the public part of the migratory policy is that several of its characteristics are already present.

The U.S. State Department announced that Mexico's National Guard will contain the migratory flow on Mexico's southern border, and our country will become – for those who manage to pass (the border) – a kind of detention camp in which migrants will have to wait before knowing their migratory status. The U.S. will support the Mexican government's measures in the following domains: judicial, police and “social”. The National Guard immediately mobilized 6,000 troops to the southern border to militarize it, and some solidarity activists were detained with the migrant caravans, for whom we demand their immediate release. The spectacular deployment of the National Guard is added to the permanent presence of the National Army, the Federal Police and the agents of the National Institute of Migration. This aggravates the situation of migrant workers, already brutalized by an increase in detentions and deportations, raids in hotels and parks, the use of paramilitarism and the separation of families.

This anti-immigrant agreement is celebrated by all the monopolies, chambers’ of commerce, and all the bourgeois parties. The “national unity” is declared in defense of the interests of the bourgeoisie and the announced rally in defense of sovereignty, held in Tijuana, is to fly the flag of “free trade”, to sing the praises of the T-MEC and the Integral Development Plan, a euphemism for the export of capital from the Mexican monopolies to Central America. Thus, this agreement renders an important service at the beginning of the campaign for Trump's re-election.

Such measures by both governments are contrary to the interests of the working class throughout North America: be they Canadian, U.S., Mexican, or migrant workers, mostly from Central America. So it is not only up to us to fight against such an anti-immigrant policy, to exercise the broadest solidarity with workers of other nationalities as they pass through Mexico, but also to coordinate actions with the communist and workers' parties in the region to fight against the USMCA and in defense of the interests of the working class.

Workers of all countries, unite!

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee

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