Mexico City, Feb 23 (IANS) Mexico's Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray said ahead of talks with senior officials from the United States that his country would not accept immigration provisions that are unilaterally imposed by its northern neighbour.
Videgaray on Wednesday made those remarks after President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday announced major changes to US immigration enforcement earlier this week, Efe news reported.
"I want to state as clearly and emphatically as possible that the Mexican government and the Mexican people do not have to accept provisions that one government may wish to impose on another," Videgaray said during a meeting in Mexico City with the Mexico representative for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"We're not going to accept that because there's no reason for us to do so and because it's not in Mexico's interest," he added.
Under the Trump administration's new guidelines, virtually all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US could be targeted for deportation; immigration officials, however, will still prioritize the individuals they target, with serious criminals at the top of the list.
Illegal immigrants also could be immediately deported from anywhere in the country provided they have not been in the US for more than two years.
Furthermore, according to one provision of a Department of Homeland Security directive, migrants who entered the US by crossing the US-Mexico border could be sent back to Mexico even if they are citizens of other countries.
Videgaray said Mexico's government would do all it could to ensure protection for its people's human rights abroad, including by bringing complaints before the UN.
The immigration issue will be front and center when Videgaray meets this week with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who arrived in Mexico City on Wednesday.
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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