24 February 2017•Update: 24 February 2017
By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
Mexican authorities Thursday conveyed concerns to their U.S. counterparts about President Donald Trump’s stern immigration policy.
In a summit in Mexico City, the two countries’ foreign and interior ministers discussed the path forward on a thorny border issue between the neighbors.
"We raised our disagreement with some of the measures announced by the U.S. government that have implications for our country and compatriots," said host Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong in a press conference.
Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said U.S. and Mexican officials agreed to assume a shared responsibility in the subject of migration, with an emphasis on addressing the causes.
"In the coming months, we must call on the countries involved in the phenomenon to dialogue and take responsibility to address the causes of migration," he said.
In a bid to offer reassurances, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said there would be "no use of military force in migration" and "no mass deportations".
Minister Osorio Chong said his country would not accept its neighbor’s new immigration guidelines that require border agents to return undocumented persons to Mexico, even if they are not Mexican citizens.
The policy has drawn the ire of the Mexican government, already angered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall along the southern border and force Mexico to pay for it.
President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a planned trip to Washington D.C. last month after Trump ramped up the wall rhetoric.
After the press conference, Kelly and State Secretary Rex Tillerson met with President Nieto.
