Mexico's president urges trump on open borders, rejects drug trafficking tie

Mexican leader plans to explain importance of economic integration and that migrants do not bring drugs into US

MEXICO:

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that he will send a letter to former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump explaining the need for open borders and that migrants are not responsible for drug trafficking in the US. 

Although Lopez Obrador has backed Trump throughout the years, the US candidate's anti-immigrant stance and protectionist economic policies have prompted frictions in the bilateral relations between the North American neighbors.

With more than 1,250 miles of shared border, Trump's campaign promises pose a risk to Mexico on both immigration and economic grounds, which has prompted Lopez Obrador to reach out to Trump months before the election.

Read: Rethink NATO, troops to Mexico: Trump's foreign policy plan

"I am going to send a letter to my friend Donald Trump because I think he is not well informed about the immigration issue and the importance of maintaining the economic integration between the United States, Mexico, and Canada," said Lopez Obrador during his morning briefing.

Trump is accused of turning the US-Mexican border into a political weapon during the campaign trails, doubling down on his anti-immigration stance, while he has promised to shut down the border and enact the largest deportation program in US history if re-elected.

"In the migratory case, I am going to show him that migrants do not bring drugs to the United States, which is a vile lie, that migrants go to the United States to work honestly, and that (the United States) was constituted and became a power thanks to migrants," said Lopez Obrador.

During his first term, Trump was keen to use coercive measures to hold migratory flows within Mexican territory; the threat of imposing tariffs on Mexican goods and other economic pressures resulted in the Mexican government folding to US policies such as the Migration Protection Protocols or Title 42, which empowered the US to push migrants into Mexico.

In addition, Trump has promised to hold production within US borders, potentially harming Mexican exports. Mexico has risen as the US's main trading partner in recent years, resulting in more than $475 billion in exports since early 2024 and a trading surplus favoring Mexico.

A close border and protective economic policy pushed by Trump could hamper the economic integration plans sustained by Biden's administration and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement.

"The closed border would not hold for a month, neither would US producers, manufacturers, investors or workers," said Lopez Obrador.