Donald Trump has promised to launch the largest deportation operation in American history soon after taking office.
But Latin American officials say the Mexican government and other regional allies have been unable to meet with the incoming Trump administration, leaving them in the dark about the president-elect’s plans to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
The incoming administration has rejected Mexico’s request for a formal meeting, and detailed discussions will not be held until after Trump’s inauguration next Monday, according to Mexican officials and two people familiar with the exchange who were not authorized to speak publicly. It was argued that it would only begin later.
The governments of Guatemala and Honduras also received similar messages, according to officials from both countries.
“This is not business as usual,” says Eric L. Olson, a fellow in the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program and Mexico Institute. “Typically there has been more informal contact and some discussion by now.”
Analysts say the next administration may want to quell the conflict before ratcheting up pressure by signing a flurry of executive orders on immigration, leaving governments in the region scrambling to respond. If this happens, it is likely that the US government will become more involved in future negotiations.
“At this point, we cannot talk about specific measures because we have not had any specific conversations about migration policy with the incoming authorities,” Santiago Palomo, a spokesman for Guatemala’s president, said in an interview. He said in an interview how the country is preparing to respond. Trump’s mass deportation plan.
Guatemala’s ambassador to the U.S. has been in contact with President Trump’s transition team, officials said, but members of the incoming administration have not communicated specific plans for increased deportations or how Guatemala should prepare. There wasn’t.
Honduran government officials also said they had not yet had any major contact with the incoming Trump administration. Earlier this month, Honduran President Xiomara Castro threatened to force U.S. troops out of military bases built in the Central American country decades ago if Trump carried out mass deportations.
Given Trump’s focus on Latin America, local governments are reeling from the lack of clarity on his objectives.
The incoming administration has said it wants to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy implemented during Trump’s first term, which forced some migrants to wait in Mexico instead of the United States while their asylum cases were pending. Mr. Trump also declared a national emergency and said he intended to use the U.S. military in some way to support his plans for the mass deportation of millions of illegal immigrants.
“President Trump, with the cooperation of all federal powers and in coordination with state authorities, is working with the largest number of illegal criminals, drug traffickers, and human traffickers in U.S. history,” said Caroline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for President Trump’s transition team. “We are launching a deportation operation,” he said in an email. New York Times. He did not respond to questions about whether the incoming administration had rejected requests from Mexico and other countries for talks.
Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said her administration has not approved a mass deportation plan. “Of course we disagree,” she said at a press conference Wednesday. “But we are ready in case the U.S. government makes such a decision.”
But when asked how the country would respond, her answers were always evasive — even though she recently signaled a willingness to take in some non-Mexican deportees.
“We’re going to ask the United States to send as many non-Mexican migrants back to their countries of origin as possible. If not, we can work together through other mechanisms,” he told reporters earlier this month. .
Some analysts believe that Trump’s team may be restricting talks with Latin American governments over concerns about violating the Logan Act. This law forces the current US president to limit the scope of negotiations with foreign governments until the next administration takes office, so as not to undermine his position.
However, previous incoming administrations have met with foreign governments and carefully discussed policy goals without violating the law.
Either way, the law has done little to curb Trump’s desire to meet with his future counterpart. Since the November presidential election, Mr. Trump has met individually with the leaders of Italy, Canada and Argentina at his Mar-a-Lago hotel.
Despite the lack of contact, Trump has made his foreign policy goals clear through speeches and social media, giving Mexican and other local governments insight into possible future U.S. policy.
“President Trump has shown publicly that immigration is a top priority, just like tariffs,” Olson said.
Immediately after his election victory, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico unless it did more to curb the flow of immigrants and drugs.
“But the Trump administration does not have a clear mechanism for how to conduct dialogue and negotiations. That will be resolved soon,” Olson added.
The next U.S. administration is likely to seek to get Latin American countries to agree to accept asylum seekers from other countries seeking refuge in the United States, known as “safe third country agreements.” The first Trump administration was able to get Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to sign these agreements, but the policy was only temporarily implemented in Guatemala.
But this time around, those agreements could be harder to forge. “We are not a safe third country. No one is proposing that,” Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo told The Associated Press this week.
Foreign Minister Carlos Ramírez Martínez said in an interview that he expected the government to face pressure. “I don’t doubt it’s coming,” he said.
El Salvadoran officials said He vowed to work with the Trump administration to protect the status of Salvadorans in the United States. “We are working to make immigration a choice, not a requirement,” Foreign Ministry official Cindy Portal said in a television interview Wednesday.
In the absence of clear decision-making from the transition team, some Latin American leaders are instead calling for a concerted response in preparation for executive orders related to immigration and deportation that will be issued after Trump takes office. I’m practicing.
Representatives from several regional governments met in Mexico City this week to discuss “opportunities and challenges of migration in the region, and strengthening coordination and cooperation,” according to a Guatemalan government statement about the conference.
Although much of the agenda discussed immigration, Trump was not mentioned.
Jody Garcia contributed reporting from Guatemala City. João Suazo from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. and Gabriel Labrador from San Salvador, El Salvador. Contributing from Mexico City were James Wagner, Paulina Villegas, Emiliano Rodriguez Mega and Simon Romero. Mary Trinny Zea of Panama City; Julie Turkewicz from Bogotá, Colombia. Hogla Enesia Perez from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Ed Augustine from Havana, Cuba. Lucia Cholakian Herrera is from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
