In response to the initial actions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump on his first day in office, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday said she will maintain “a cool head” and respond ”step by step.”

Following his inauguration as the 47th U.S. president on Monday, Trump issued a flurry of executive orders, five of which directly impact Mexico, according to the newspaper La Jornada. 

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has urged Mexican immigrants in the US to remain calm. Her statement came after President Trump announced he would declare a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and begin the process of deporting millions of people.⁣ pic.twitter.com/pAo4Unclm3

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Trump declared a national emergency at its border with Mexico, signed an executive order that could result in Mexican drug cartels being designated as terrorist organizations, and suggested he could apply an across-the-board 25% duty on Mexican goods beginning in February.

Flanked by her foreign and interior ministers at her Tuesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum assured the Mexican public that she will protect Mexico’s interests while also pursuing dialogue with Trump amid the border alarm.

“Regarding the decrees that President Donald Trump signed yesterday, I would like to say the following: The people of Mexico can be sure that we will always defend our sovereignty and our independence,” she said, according to the news agency Reuters.

In recent weeks, Sheinbaum has said Mexico could retaliate to U.S. tariffs with tariffs of its own, but she declined to respond in kind on Tuesday.

“It’s always important to have a cool head,” she said, declaring she would insist on respectful relations while trying to avoid confrontations.

Julio Ruiz, chief economist for Mexico at Citigroup investment bank, told Reuters that Sheinbaum is attempting to calm things down and separate concrete actions from political rhetoric.

“One thing is what’s already signed, and another is these casual comments,” he said. “You have to distinguish between those two things, and … she’s trying to give that message to the market and to the population in general.”

With reports from Reuters and La Jornada