Mexico-US tariff deal: Questions, concerns for migration

As Washington and Mexico City both took victory laps Saturday over a deal that headed off threatened tariffs on Mexican imports, it remained to be seen how effective it may be and migration experts raised concerns over what it could mean for people fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.

Other than a vague reiteration of a joint commitment to promote development, security and growth in Central America, the agreement focuses almost exclusively on enforcement and says little about the root causes driving the surge in migrants seen in recent months.

"My sense is overall the Mexican government got out of this better than they thought. The agreement though leaves a lot of big question marks," said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.

"It's good that the two sides reached an agreement which allows both of them to save face, but it's not clear how easy it is to implement."
"I have said before, migration into Mexico also has to be regulated ... orderly, legal and safe," Snchez Cordero told The Associated Press. "So the National Guard that we were going to deploy anyway, we're going to deploy. It's not because they tell us to, but rather because we're going to do it anyway."
"People are fleeing their homes regardless of what the journey might mean and regardless of what chance they may have for seeking protections in Mexico or in the United States," said Maureen Meyer, an immigration expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, "simply because they need to leave."
"It was 'what can we do to stop them,' and not 'what can we really do to create the conditions in their home countries so that people don't have to leave.'"
"You know this is an area that the U.S. government considers that it's not safe for any American citizen," Meyer said, referring to the State Department's highest-level warning against all travel to Tamaulipas due to crime and kidnappings. "And yet it's OK for us to send people back there?"
Arturo Rocha, a Foreign Relations Department spokesman, tweeted late Friday that it was "an unquestionable triumph for Mexico."