Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pushed back against US President Donald Trump’s threat to double tariffs on Mexican goods over a migrant caravan travelling north, saying no such group has reached the US border since he returned to office in January 2025.
Trump had threatened to immediately double tariffs on Mexican imports if the government failed to halt a group of around 1,500 migrants, mostly from Central America, who began travelling from Tapachula in southern Mexico on Tuesday.
Sheinbaum said a separate group of around 600 migrants moving through the southern state of Chiapas had largely dispersed after being informed that reaching the United States would be “very difficult”. Mexican authorities were also in discussions with several hundred Honduran migrants, encouraging them to return to their home country, she said. The Mexican president ruled out using force to break up the groups, saying authorities had extensive experience accompanying migrants and explaining the difficulties they would face in attempting to reach the US.
“Not a single migrant caravan has reached the north” since January 2025, Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing on Thursday, responding to Trump’s demand that Mexico stop migrants from travelling through its territory.