After visiting the states of Durango and Zacatecas on the weekend, President Claudia Sheinbaum was back at the National Palace in Mexico City on Monday for another morning press conference, or mañanera.
Among the questions she received from reporters was one on a political appointment announced by Donald Trump on his social media site Truth Social, and one on a ruthless attack in Querétaro city that claimed 10 lives on Saturday night.
Sheinbaum reacts to Trump’s ‘border czar’ announcement
Early in her Q&A session with reporters, Sheinbaum was asked about United States’ President-elect Trump’s announcement on Sunday that former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan would be his “border czar.”
“We’re going to seek to get in contact with President Trump’s transition team,” she responded.
“… We’re always going to defend the Mexicans on the other side of the border,” Sheinbaum said, noting that they’re “necessary for the United States economy.”
Homan, one of the architects of the first Trump administration’s family separation policy, said in a 60 Minutes interview in October that deportations during the second Trump administration wouldn’t be “a mass sweep of neighborhoods” to detain undocumented immigrants in the United States, among whom are millions of Mexicans.
“It’s not going to be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous. It’ll be concentrated. They’ll be targeted arrests,” he said.
Asked whether there was a way to carry out mass deportations without separating families, Homan responded:
“Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”
Querétaro bar attack targeted ‘one person,’ president says
Sheinbaum confirmed that one person was arrested after 10 people were killed at a bar in Querétaro city on Saturday night.
She also said that the aggressors were “going for one person,” but didn’t provide additional details.
Media reports citing federal officials said that the target of the attack was Fernando González Núñez, a presumed Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) member known as La Flaca. The CJNG has been fighting the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel in Guanajuato — which borders Querétaro — for years.
Sheinbaum said that federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch contacted Querétaro authorities immediately after the attack on Saturday night to determine what federal support they required.
She also said that members of the federal government’s security cabinet will attend her press conference on Tuesday and provide more information about the massacre in the usually peaceful city of Querétaro.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
