MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has warned that Mexico will push back if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attacks Mexico on trade or other fronts — using its cooperation on crucial issues such as immigration and security as leverage.
While he didn’t mention Trump by name, much of Pena Nieto’s address to a gathering of Mexican ambassadors on Wednesday was directed at the incoming U.S. president, who in a news conference earlier in the day had vowed yet again to tax imports from Mexico and to force Mexico to pay for construction of a massive border wall.
In his speech, Pena Nieto said conversations with the U.S. about taxes or trade deals would also include conversations about U.S.-Mexico collaboration on immigration and security.
In recent years, Mexico has stepped up its presence along its southern border in an effort to help the U.S. slow immigration from Central America and other parts of the world. Between October 2014 and May 2015, for example, Mexican authorities detained more Central American migrants than the U.S. Border Patrol.