Trump warns he'll dump Nafta if Mexico doesn't stop drug flows

President Donald Trump threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) if Mexico doesn’t stop people and drugs from flowing into the US from Central America.

“They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. Need Wall!” Trump said Sunday on Twitter, minutes before arriving at church for an Easter Sunday service with his wife, Melania.

In a series of tweets, the president also suggested he was no longer willing to strike a deal to assist immigrants brought to the country illegally as minors, and repeated a call for Senate Republicans to go to a simple 51-vote majority as a way to pass legislation more easily.

The president’s tweet was posted shortly after a segment on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” in which Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, a labour union representing border patrol agents, talked about reports that a caravan of hundreds of Central Americans was headed toward the US in a bid to secure asylum.

Judd said the immigrants seeking asylum would “create havoc and chaos” while in the US awaiting hearings on their refugee status. Under current immigration policies, asylum seekers that prove a “credible fear” of returning home may be released while they await adjudication if they don’t present a security or flight risk. Those detained after crossing the border are also sometimes released due to bed shortages and a court ruling that limits the detention of women and children in custody to 21 days.