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Mexico Senate rebukes Trump over border deployment plans

By REUTERS

APRIL 5, 2018 06:16

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Senate issued a stern rebuke to US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, urging its government to end cooperation with the United States on migration and security over Trump's plans to deploy the National Guard along their shared border.

In a motion which passed the Senate floor unanimously, the lawmakers also condemned Trump's aggressive rhetoric toward Mexico, describing the president's decision this week to send troops to the border as "one more insult."

"(Trump's) conduct has been permanently and systematically, not only disrespectful, but insulting, based on prejudices and misinformation and making frequent use of threats and blackmail," Laura Rojas, the head of the Senate's foreign relations committee, said in support of the motion.

The Trump administration is working with four southwestern US states to deploy the Guard troops, who will not be involved in law enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has said.

The Mexican Senate's resolution is non-binding and unlikely to trigger policy changes.

After the motion passed, the Mexican foreign ministry issued a statement saying it would maintain close contact with the US Homeland Security Department about its plans for the border.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray discussed the situation with Nielsen, the ministry said.

"In all communications on the matter, Mexico's government has informed the government of the United States that if the announced deployment of the National Guard turned into a militarization of the border, that would gravely damage the bilateral relationship," it added.

The Trump administration's announcement was also condemned by the front-runner to win the Mexican presidency in a July 1 election, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

"No to the militarization of the border, no to the wall," Lopez Obrador wrote in a post on Twitter. "Yes to mutual respect and cooperation for development."

Jose Antonio Meade, the candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, urged candidates to stand together in denouncing the deployment of troops on the border.

"I call for all political forces to unanimously show our strongest condemnation of these types of aggressions," he said in a statement.

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