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President Donald Trump is using his tariff leverage to urge Mexico to stop a migrant caravan from reaching the U.S. southern border.
“Huge CARAVANS are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico,” Trump wrote in a Thursday morning Truth Social post. “Many of the people in these Caravans are those that various countries don’t want – ‘Send them to America,’ they say – But they will not be accepted!
“MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED,” he added. “MEXICO, THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, THE VERY LIBERAL NEW GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, OUR GREAT BORDER PATROL, & ICE, HAVE BEEN SO INFORMED. There will be no leniency!”
Trump’s post began with the suggestion the midterm election results have emboldened the mass migration efforts that he has had to shut down since his first administration.
“Here we go again!” Trump’s post began. “With the perceived loss by the Republicans in the Midterms – I WAS NOT ON THE BALLOT- the INVASION of our Country is taking place again.”
The group of migrants, an estimated 1,500 people mostly from Central America, set off Tuesday from the southern city of Tapachula near the Guatemala border, hoping Democrats’ victory in the U.S. midterm election could open pathways for them to live and work in the United States.
Democratic state attorneys general gains in the midterms could help unwind some of Trump’s immigration law enforcement that he had admitted might have come off as “too tough” for voters earlier this month.
Democratic Texas attorney general-elect Nathan Johnson could drop the state’s defense of SB4, a Republican-backed Texas law that allows state authorities to arrest and prosecute people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in April allowed the law to take effect as a challenge proceeds.
Incumbent Republican Texas AG Ken Paxton, who chose not to seek re-election in failed bid for the U.S. Senate, emains in office until Johnson is sworn in Jan. 1, 2027.
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In another matter, the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether to take up Iowa’s appeal of a ruling blocking a law that would allow state officials to arrest and prosecute people who are in the U.S. illegally. The state’s Democratic AG-elect Nate Willems, could decline to defend the law if the Supreme Court takes the case.
Reuters contributed to this report.
