Mexican President again criticises US immigration raids as “unjust”

Mexico City, Sep 10 (IANS) Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has once again criticised the latest raids against migrants in the United States as “unjust,” reiterating that her government has protocols in place to aid affected Mexican nationals.

At her regular daily press conference on Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that following such incidents, an alert has been issued to Mexico’s envoys in the United States, who immediately contact local officials to verify whether any Mexican nationals have been detained.

She stressed that the raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection are “unjust,” Xinhua News Agency reported.

Sheinbaum, who believes comprehensive immigration reform is urgently needed to recognise migrants’ contributions to the US economy, has strengthened Mexico’s consular network in the United States to better aid citizens detained or deported.

At least 26 Mexicans were detained during the latest immigration raids in the southern US state of Georgia, said the Mexican government.

Sheinbaum has been very vocal about her criticisms of the US administration over the immigration raids. Recently, she also slammed Trump over the strike on a Venezuelan ship.

Earlier on August 27, Sheinbaum had reiterated her opposition to any form of foreign intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign countries, referring to recent tensions between the United States and Venezuela.

“We will never be in favour of foreign government intervention in a sovereign country,” the president said, as tensions in the Caribbean Sea escalated after the United States deployed warships near the coast of Venezuela, which Washington describes as part of its strategy to fight the international drug cartels.

Sheinbaum stressed that Mexico will maintain a foreign policy based on respect for sovereignty, the self-determination of peoples and peaceful resolution of conflicts, in line with the constitutional principles guiding Mexican diplomacy.

“Mexico’s foreign policy clearly states ‘no’ to interventionism and ‘yes’ to the defence of the self-determination of peoples. That will always be our position,” she said.

–IANS

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