President Donald Trump has said he is likely to close the US border if Mexico does not do more to stop migrants reaching the United States. The closure would disrupt border crossings, costing billions of dollars in trade.
Mr Trump’s threat follows a surge in migrants travelling through Mexico to seek asylum in the US.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would not be drawn into confrontation on the issue. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said in a tweet that Mexico was a “great neighbour” to the US and would “not act on the basis of threats”.
Mr Trump told reporters on Friday: “There’s a very good likelihood that I’ll be closing the border next week, and that will be just fine with me.” He said it was very easy for Mexico to “stop people from coming up, but they don’t choose to do it”.
The president later wrote a series of tweets which concluded that because the US “lose so much money with them, especially when you add in drug trafficking etc., that the Border closing would be a good thing!”
President López Obrador said on Thursday that the issue of migration was “not up to us Mexicans”. He said it was a problem stemming from Central American countries rather than Mexico.
“The Mexican is no longer seeking work in the United States. The majority of migrants are inhabitants of our fellow Central American countries,” he said.
Following President Trump’s tweets on Friday, Mr López Obrador said to a crowd of supporters: “I want to make it clear that we are not going to fight with the United States government. Peace and love.”
He referred to migration as a “human right” and said: “People in Central America don’t have any options, so they set out looking for a way to earn a living.”