President Donald Trump strongly criticized Mexico on Thursday for not assisting the U.S. in stopping Central American migrants from illegally crossing the U.S. southwestern border.
“Mexico is making $100 billion a year off us and the horrible NAFTA deal. I am being tough. One of the reasons I’m being tough, they do nothing for us at the border. They encourage people frankly to walk through Mexico and go into the United States. Because they are drug traffickers. They are human traffickers,” he said in a cabinet meeting Thursday.
Trump continued “they are coyotes. We are getting real beauties. Mexico is doing nothing for us except for taking our money and sending us drugs. They are doing nothing. They could solve this problem in two minutes and you wouldn’t have to do anything. They don’t do it. They talk a good game. But they don’t do it.
The president’s comments come amidst the ongoing central American migrant crisis on U.S.-Mexico border where tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and adults are showing up to claim asylum. Trump is pursuing criminal prosecutions against all of those who cross the border, though he is attempting to no longer separate family units.