Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) mocked President Donald Trump for “backing off” his tariff threat against Mexico, adding that the deal will likely little affect illegal immigration.
“Just as I predicted, the president backed off,” he said in a statement. “He says that Mexico will take action to ‘greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States’, but if past is prologue, this is likely to be one of the president’s typical, bogus solutions to justify backing off things like the tariffs, which he precipitously proposed, much to the consternation of the business community nationwide and Republicans in the House and Senate.”
“It is likely to have only a small impact on solving the root causes of Central American migration because many of the components are things Mexico is already doing,” he continued. “President Trump ought to stop acting like a showman and start working with Democrats on our serious proposals to address the nation’s most pressing needs.”
The bulk of the deal, which Trump tweeted about Friday night, seems to consist mostly of concessions Mexico already agreed to months before Trump wielded his tariff cudgel. He was facing hefty pressure from both parties to drop the threat or risk a veto-proof vote nullifying his national emergency declaration.
