Trump to pause tariffs on Canada for 30 days, Trudeau says – live updates

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

As part of today’s agreement to “pause” the tariffs on Mexico, the Mexican government had promised to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops to the northern border, in part, to stop the flow of undocumented migrants to the US border.

While different in scale, this is not the first time that Mexico has cracked down on migrants headed to the US.

Last year – during the Biden administration – Mexico deployed some forces to its southern border with Guatemala and in southern Mexican cities that have become hubs for migrants, which led to a significant increase in the number of migrants intercepted before they arrived at the US border.

In January and February last year alone, about 120,000 people were detained. The vast majority remained in Mexico, with only limited deportations of about 8,000 people to Guatemala and Honduras in the same time frame.

In practice, the crackdown – which followed a December meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mexican officials including López Obrador – has seen Mexican security forces set up new checkpoints on roads, increase patrols and, in some cases, remove migrants from freight trains headed towards the US border.

Read more about how the Mexican military played a part in stemming the flow of migrants.