US immigration raids and a meeting with the president of Guatemala: Thursday’s mañanera recapped

An immigration raid in the United States and plans to meet with the leaders of Mexico’s two southern neighbors were among the issues President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Thursday morning press conference.

She also highlighted that Mexico’s headline inflation rate declined significantly in July.

Sheinbaum expresses opposition to US immigration raids

A reporter noted that U.S. authorities carried out an immigration raid in California on Wednesday despite court-ordered “restrictions” against such operations.

“U.S. border patrol agents carried out a raid outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles on Wednesday, with officers jumping out of an unmarked rental truck and chasing and arresting more than a dozen people,” The Guardian reported.

“Videos of the operation, and federal officials’ statements boasting about the detentions, have raised questions about whether the U.S. government was complying with a federal court order halting indiscriminate raids in the region due to evidence of racial profiling,” the newspaper said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that “Border Patrol conducted a targeted raid, dubbed Trojan Horse, in Los Angeles at a Home Depot that resulted in the arrest of 16 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua.”

Sheinbaum reiterated her opposition to operations targeting undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

“We don’t agree with the raids,” she said.

“And we’re going to protect and assist our compatriots in every way possible within the framework of our laws, the diplomatic relationship [with the United States], and the support we can provide them from the [Mexican] consulates,” Sheinbaum said.

Sheinbaum to meet with president of Guatemala

Sheinbaum told reporters that she would meet with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo next week.

She said she would provide additional details about the meeting on Monday.

“Yesterday I told you that the prime minister of Canada was coming. Next week we’ll see the president of Guatemala … in the southeast [of Mexico],” Sheinbaum said.

Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo
President Sheinbaum will meet with Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo next week in southern Mexico, she said. (Gobierno de Guatemala/Flickr)

She said that the exact meeting place hadn’t yet been determined.

Sheinbaum said she was looking at whether she could also meet with the prime minister of Belize, Johnny Briceño, next week.

Plans (or hopes) to extend the Maya Train railroad into Guatemala and Belize could form part of the discussions between Sheinbaum and the Central American leaders.

The president has not yet met face-to-face with the leader of Mexico’s other immediate neighbor, the United States, but she has spoken to Donald Trump by telephone on numerous occasions, most recently last Thursday.

Sheinbaum highlights ‘very significant’ decline in inflation 

Sheinbaum acknowledged that annual headline inflation declined to 3.51% in July, as reported by the national statistics agency INEGI on Thursday.

She noted that the highest rate of headline inflation so far this year was 4.42% in May, followed by a rate of 4.32% in June.

The drop to 3.51% in July is “very significant,” Sheinbaum said.

The rate is within the Bank of Mexico’s target range range of 2-4% annual inflation.

On Tuesday afternoon, the central bank announced a 25-basis-point cut to its key interest rate, lowering it to 7.75%.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

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