OTAY MESA, CA. As the country awaited newly sworn-in President Donald Trump to sign a number of executive orders pertaining to immigration, Customs and Border Protection officers monitored the major and secondary walls between San Diego and Tijuana on a calm morning.
Trump stated in his inaugural address that he “will declare a national emergency at our southern border.” We will immediately stop all illegal entry and start the process of repatriating millions of criminal aliens to their original locations.”
Remain in Mexico, a rule from his previous administration that mandates that anyone attempting to enter the United States through Mexico stay in Mexico, will be reinstated, Trump pledged.
He additionally pledged to “send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
The precise impact of the executive orders on ground operations was not immediately apparent, as agents were still awaiting new guidance.
However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her Cabinet members voiced their disapproval of Trump’s proposal to reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy and the “unilateral deportations” of Mexican citizens residing in the United States prior to his inauguration.
“This is something we disagree with if they bring it back. Our focus is different. During a press conference on Monday morning, Mexico’s secretary for external relations, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, stated, “We want to adjust it.” In the end, however, “the desire is to keep the same policies as now,” he continued.
The “Remain in Mexico” policy, according to De la Fuente, “does not require the assistance of other countries” to implement, making it “unilateral.”
De la Fuente stated that although the policy does not require Mexico to handle U.S. asylum requests, “we can come to some agreements and find a way to operate.”
Sheinbaum stated that she and her administration “insist that there is a possibility to get asylum, not only from the border in person, but from a distance in the southern part of the country or in other countries.”
She went on, “That’s what we’re working on,”
Sheinbaum also advocated for the retention of the CBP One app, which enabled asylum-seeking migrants to undergo prescreening before to their arrival in the United States. She said that “this will help alleviate the tension in the northern border of Mexico and the southern border of the U.S.”
On Monday afternoon, however, the CBP One app’s website announced that it “is no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled.”
Mexican Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez Vel zquez stated that although the Mexican government opposes such actions, “we will receive them and give them access to Mexico’s welfare programs” in response to Trump’s promise to launch the biggest mass deportation operation in American history.
According to Rodriguez Vel zquez, these would include any other benefits provided by Mexico’s Social Security Institute, as well as access to health care for themselves and their families, transportation back to their home countries, and telephone communications.
In his inaugural address, Trump once more stated his plan to issue an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
Although the power of a U.S. president to rename foreign waterways is unclear, Sheinbaum has previously retaliated against Trump by proposing that the United States be renamed “America Mexicana.”
Jacob Soboroff reported from Otay Mesa, California, and Nicole Acevedo from New York.