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U.S. NEWS Thursday 23 February 2017

House speaker has Trump sends top aides to Mexico amid strains with US
firsthand look at
US-Mexico border JOSH LEDERMAN Nieto and with Mexico’s ments between the coun- Whereas President Barack
Associated Press top defense, finance and tries, describing close co- Obama focused on de-
MCALLEN, Texas (AP) MEXICO CITY (AP) — Presi- diplomatic officials. operation between the porting immigrants convict-
— U.S. House Speaker dent Donald Trump dis- Yet Tillerson’s counterpart two countries on econom- ed of serious crimes, new
Paul Ryan visited the Rio patched his top diplomat in Mexico, Luis Videgaray, ic prosperity, law enforce- memos signed by Kelly pri-
Grande valley on Wednes- and homeland security insisted that his country ment, drug trafficking and oritize deportation for any-
day for a firsthand look at chief to Mexico on Wednes- would not “accept unilat- trade. Reporters were given one convicted of a crime
the U.S.-Mexico border as day on a fence-mending
the Trump administration mission complicated by
steps up immigration en- the actual fence he wants
forcement and prepares to build on the southern
to ask Congress to pay for border. Mexico’s govern-
a border wall. ment signaled it was in no
It was the first time the Wis- mood to be lectured by
consin Republican had vis- the new U.S. administration.
ited the border, and pro- Ties between the countries
testers gathered to meet have plunged since Trump
his arrival in McAllen, Texas, took office a month ago,
with hand-painted signs punctuated by Trump’s in-
protesting Trump policies. sistence that Mexico pay
Ryan led a small group for a border wall and other
of fellow Republicans on demands on illegal immi-
the trip, including Rep. Mi- gration and trade. During
chael McCaul of Texas, their brief visit, U.S. Secre-
who chairs the Homeland tary of State Rex Tillerson
Security Committee in the and Homeland Security
House. In McAllen, Ryan Secretary John Kelly will
came face to face with face a Mexican govern-
some of the challenges ment anxiously rethinking its
that arise in building a wall relationship with its bigger,
along the entire 2,000-mile richer and more powerful Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exits his limousine at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday,
border, which includes neighbor. Feb. 22, 2017, before his departure to Mexico. President Donald Trump is sending his Tillerson and
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to Mexico on a fence-mending mission made all the
much remote and inhos- Tillerson arrived in Mexico more challenging by the actual fence he wants to build on the southern border.
pitable terrain as well as City late Wednesday, while (Carlos Barria via AP, Pool)
the Rio Grande, the river Mexico was still reeling from
between Texas and Mexi- the Trump administration’s
co. He met with local offi- announcement a day ear- eral decisions imposed by an official briefing ahead or charged with any of-
cials and toured the area lier of a deportation crack- one government on an- of the trip on condition that fense. That includes cross-
by boat and helicopter, down that envisions send- other.” officials weren’t quoted by ing the border illegally.
and even briefly rode on a ing people to Mexico who “We don’t have to, and it name. “I think there’s an The memos also call for
horse. “When you see with cross the border illegally — is not in the interest of Mex- unbelievable and robust sending some people who
your own eyes the many even if they’re not Mexican ico,” Videgaray said. He dialogue between the two enter the U.S. illegally back
challenges facing our law citizens. hinted that Mexico might nations,” Spicer said. to Mexico, even if they’re
enforcement professionals Kelly, whose department is seek to challenge Trump’s On Tuesday, the U.S. from Central America or
along the border, it gives in charge of implementing move at the United Nations changed immigration en- elsewhere and only used
you even greater respect Trump’s immigration crack- or in other international forcement policies that Mexico as a transit point.
for the work that they do down, was arriving sepa- bodies. could subject millions of Detention center capac-
day-in and day-out. But rately after a visit to Guate- Still, senior Trump adminis- people living in the U.S. il- ity will expand; planning for
more tools and more sup- mala. The two plan to meet tration officials sought to legally — including many Trump’s much touted wall
port are needed for them with President Enrique Pena play down the disagree- Mexicans— to deportation. will begin.q
to do their jobs effectively,”
Ryan said in a statement McCain makes trip to Syria to meet with US troops
after the visit. “Congress is
committed to securing the RICHARD LARDNER ment from the senator’s of- McCain, the chairman of ance 70 years ago.
border and enforcing our Associated Press fice did not give the dates the Senate Armed Services McCain on Monday wel-
laws, and together with WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. of his travel, saying only Committee, has voiced comed Trump’s selection
the Trump administration, John McCain, one of Presi- that he made the visit last escalating concerns with of Army Lt. Gen. H.R. Mc-
we will get this done.” dent Donald Trump’s harsh- week. Trump. He recently de- Master to be his national
President Donald Trump est critics, made a secret “Senator McCain’s visit was clared his administration security adviser, calling
has not yet formalized his trip to northern Syria to a valuable opportunity to in disarray and expressed the pick an “outstanding
request to Congress to pay visit U.S. forces stationed assess dynamic conditions concern over how national choice.”
for the wall he promised there and discuss the cam- on the ground in Syria and security decisions are be- McCain also quietly trav-
during his campaign. It’s paign for defeating the Is- Iraq,” the statement reads. ing handled. eled to Syria in 2013 to
expected to cost $15 bil- lamic State extremists, his It says the president “has During a speech Friday at meet with rebels fighting
lion or more, making it un- office said Wednesday. rightly ordered a review the Munich Security Con- President Bashar Assad’s
certain whether Congress The Arizona Republican’s of U.S. strategy and plans ference, McCain deliv- forces. That visit took place
would go along. Trump has visit to the war-torn country to defeat” the Islamic State ered a withering critique amid meetings in Paris in-
promised Mexico will pay, occurred as a major battle group and McCain looks of Trump’s worldview as he volving efforts to secure
but Mexico says it won’t, nears to oust the militants forward to working with the lamented a shift in the U.S. participation of Syria’s frac-
and Trump has never from Raqqa, the capital of administration and military and Europe away from tured opposition in an in-
spelled out how that would the Islamic State’s self-de- leaders “to optimize our the “universal values” that ternational peace confer-
happen, anyway.q clared caliphate. A state- approach.” forged the Western alli- ence in Geneva.q