‘Dreamer’ deal off, Nafta at risk — Trump
PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump has declared ‘‘NO MORE’’ to a deal to help ‘‘Dreamer’’ immigrants and threatened to pull out of a free trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the US.
He claimed they were coming to take advantage of protections granted certain immigrants.
‘‘NO MORE DACA DEAL!’’ Trump tweeted one hour after he began the day by wishing his followers a ‘‘HAPPY EASTER!’’
He said Mexico must ‘‘stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!’’
The US, Canada and Mexico are participating in tense negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement at Trump’s insistence. Trump says Nafta is bad for the US.
‘‘Mexico has got to help us at the border,’’ Trump, holding his wife’s hand, told reporters before the couple attended Easter services at an Episcopal church near his Palm Beach home.
‘‘If they’re not going to help us at the border, it’s a very sad thing between our two countries.’’
‘‘A lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of Daca,’’ he added.
Former president Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme to provide temporary protection and work permits to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are living in the US illegally after being brought to the country as children.
Trump ended the programme last year, but gave Congress six months to pass legislation enshrining it. A deal has so far proved elusive and Trump has blamed Democrats.
It was not immediately clear what Trump was referring to when he said people were coming to take advantage of the programme.
The Department of Homeland Security is not issuing new permits, although existing ones can be renewed. The Obama administration allowed signups during a set time, and the programme is closed to new entrants.
Proposed Daca deals crafted by lawmakers and rejected by Trump also were not open to new participants.
Trump did not explain what he meant when questioned by reporters and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Trump promised during the 2016 presidential campaign to build a Southern border wall to stop illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico, but Congress has frustrated him by not moving as quickly as he wants to provide money for construction.
Trump tweeted that the situation was ‘‘Getting more dangerous’’ and ‘‘Caravans’’ are coming. He did not offer details to back his comment.
The president’s tweets came after Fox News’ Fox & Friends reported yesterday on what it said was a group of 1200 immigrants, mostly from Honduras, headed to the US.
The Fox headline was ‘‘Caravan of illegal immigrants headed to US’’.
The president is known to watch the programme.
❛ If they’re not going to help us at the border, it’s a very sad thing between
our two countries
US president Donald Trump, referring to Mexico
MONTERREY: Mexican leftwing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has an 18point lead ahead of the July 1 election, according to a poll published yesterday that showed him with a growing advantage at the start of formal campaigning.
Lopez Obrador, who launched his campaign on Sunday, holds 38% of the vote, according to the poll by Parametria, published by Reuters yesterday ahead of wider distribution. That compared with 35% in its previous poll.
A Lopez Obrador victory could usher in a Mexican government less accommodating towards the United States, where President Donald Trump has stoked trade tensions with Mexico and aggressively moved to curb immigration.
Lopez Obrador has backed the North American Free Trade Agreement, but his plan to review newly issued oil contracts sparked worries he will deter foreign investment.
One of the factors that appeared to extend his lead was the expulsion of two independent hopefuls from the ballot for not reaching the required number of signatures.
The previous poll is not an exact comparison because it included the nowdisqualified candidates.
Neither secondplaced Ricardo Anaya nor thirdplaced Jose Antonio Meade showed any sign of catching up with former Mexico City mayor Lopez Obrador.
‘‘Lopez Obrador is breaking his ceiling . . . he’s growing in a way that wasn’t expected,’’ Parametria founder Francisco Abundis said.
Anaya, running for the right-left ‘‘For Mexico in Front’’ coalition, holds 20% of vote preferences, compared with 21% in the previous poll.
Former finance minister Meade, running for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), stood still on 16% of the vote, while independent candidate Margarita Zavala rose to 13% of the vote from 10% previously.
The youngest candidate, Anaya (39) launched his campaign on Thursday, pitching himself as a forwardthinking alternative both to the unpopular PRI and Lopez Obrador’s personalised leadership.
Meade’s launch on Sunday highlighted his experience in government under two different political parties, unusual in Mexican politics.
But the focus was mostly on silverhaired Lopez Obrador, who struck a more nationalistic tone in his speech in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, demanding respect from Trump.
He also repeated a promise to cancel Mexico City’s new $13 billion airport, the country’s largest infrastructure project.
All major polls show Lopez Obrador far ahead, with most showing his lead growing, although Parametria gives him the widest advantage. One poll in March put Meade in second place, although most show Anaya ahead of him. Attention has turned to which party will hold sway in the Senate and lower House of Congress, with some believing that Lopez Obrador’s party, the National Regeneration Movement, could win the biggest share in both.
One gamechanger could be the first television debate between the candidates on April 22.
Thirteen percent of those polled either did not answer, responded that they did not know or could not choose a candidate listed.
The poll of 800 people had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.