Mexico immigration chief tenders resignation

Mexico's immigration Chief Tonatiuh Guillen on Friday submitted his resignation to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as the country began its crackdown on illegal migration.

According to Al Jazeera, Guillen thanked the President for the opportunity to serve the country. However, he did not give a reason for his resignation.

His departure comes as Mexico is beefing up its security at the southern border to stop the flow of Central American migrants from entering the US and boost intelligence sharing with Washington.

On June 7, US President Donald Trump had announced that his administration reached an agreement with Mexico over immigration, owing to which tariffs on the Central American country were "indefinitely suspended," after days of gruelling negotiations between the two sides.

 

According to the deal, Mexico has agreed to strengthen its security presence at the southern border to stop the flow of Central American migrants from entering the US and boost intelligence sharing with Washington.

Mexico has also said that it would take stringent action against human and drug trafficking rings.

Trump had threatened to impose a five per cent tariff on all Mexican goods from June 10, which would increase by another five per cent every month and ultimately reach 25 per cent by October.

In the agreement, Mexico has also promised to deploy 6,000 members of its new, still-forming National Guard to control immigration.

Mexico has said that the deployment of guards will be readied by Tuesday next week.

The South American country has also agreed to consider a plan to make it a "safe third country". According to the plan, if Mexico does not bring down immigration flows by mid-July, asylum seekers would have to seek refuge instead of in the US.

Immigration rights groups have slammed to possible "safe third country" agreement, saying that it would endanger asylum seekers by requiring them to make their claims in a country experiencing high levels of violence.