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MEXICO-US-DIPLOMACY-IMMIGRATION
Mexico president-elect says will not fight with Trump
MEXICO CITY, Sept 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Mexican president-elect Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador said he does not want to fight with US President Donald
Trump on immigration.
Trump’s hardline approach on the subject has ramped up tensions and riled
Mexicans, who he previously claimed would pay for the construction of a wall
between the two countries.
But the leftist Lopez Obrador told reporters in the border state of Sonora
on Saturday that angry exchanges were not the answer.
“We are not going to fight with the US government, we are not going to
fight with President Donald Trump,” he said.
“The migration problem is not resolved by building walls or by use of
force, but it’s a diplomatic job of respect,” added Lopez Obrador, who takes
office on December 1.
On Saturday, US authorities announced the start of construction on a five-
metre (16-foot) wall along a 6.5-kilometre (4-mile) stretch of the Texan
border town of El Paso.
Trump’s insurgent campaign for the White House played heavily on a pledge
to build a wall on the southern border and to deport millions of undocumented
migrants, amid what he claimed was a crisis of immigration.
He initially demanded that Mexico pay for the barrier, a demand Mexico
repeatedly rejected. Congress has so far approved $1.6 billion of $25 billion
Trump had sought.
Much of the border already has fencing or other barriers, but Trump has
ordered a “contiguous, and impassable physical barrier,” which scientists say
would threaten more than 1,000 species of animals.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1155 hrs