President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to divert scant resources to controlling migration instead of fulfilling promises like combating violence.
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president came to office promising a fresh approach to combat record-high homicide rates: a new National Guard made up of soldiers and police. Now, in a deal to assuage his American counterpart and avert a trade war, Andrés Manuel López Obrador will have to deploy that some of that force to patrol borders instead.
Under an agreement hammered out in marathon negotiations with American officials over the last few days, Mexico agreed to send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to its southern border with Guatemala. It also agreed to allow more asylum applicants to wait in Mexico while their cases are pending in the United States.
The timing and many other details about these steps remain uncertain. But officials in both countries say all this is meant to take place quickly — an indication that, at least for now, Mr. López Obrador chose to prioritize appeasing President Trump over domestic priorities like combating violent crime.
“What few and poorly trained resources we have we will immediately put to the service of the U. S. Border Patrol along our southern border,” said Alejandro Madrazo, a professor at CIDE, a Mexico City University, and a critic of the National Guard strategy. “We are making Mexican territory a buffer zone for the U. S. border and placing Mexican bodies as a barrier for the U. S. and its immigration policy.”
The deal came as Mr. Trump threatened to slap escalating tariffs on Mexican imports if the country did not halt the surge of migrants passing through its territory on their way to the United States. The two sides announced the agreement Friday evening.
It put the brakes on initial tariffs of 5 percent on all Mexican goods that were scheduled to go into effect on Monday. At least for now.
The clock is running and in 90 days, both sides will assess the results and potentially announce new measures if they are found wanting.
In addition to the troops, which will make migration issues a primary focus, Mexico agreed to expand a controversial program known as the Migrant Protection Protocol, more commonly referred to as the Remain in Mexico Plan.
The program, announced earlier this year, forces some asylum applicants to wait in Mexico while their cases are being processed in the United States. It has resulted in the return of 8,000 people to Mexico — an action that has been legally challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union.
All along, Mexico claimed that the United States was imposing its will on them by returning the migrants, and that it had never formally agreed to anything. Some days, officials have said, they refuse to take migrants back. On others, they allow a few to return.
