MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2020) Mexico has successfully curbed the number of migrants crossing into the United States by three-quarters over the past eight months that the Comprehensive Development Plan with Central America (PDI) was in effect, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Wednesday.
The PDI was launched by the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico in June as a comprehensive plan of investments for development that would make migration for people in Central American not a necessity, but an option.
"The number of US border crossings has gone down by 74.5 percent, and the number of people detained by the migration control officers has dropped too," Ebrard said at a press conference in the presidential palace broadcast on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Twitter account.
According to him, the drop in figures came as a result of Mexico's investments in the PDI.
El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are the largest donors of irregular migrants trying to cross into the US via Mexico. US President Donald Trump has declared the fight against illegal migration, including by means of building the infamous wall on the border with Mexico, one of the key priorities of his presidency.
At about the same time as the PDA went into effect, Mexico agreed to tighten controls on its northern border after the US threatened it with steadily rising punitive import tariffs.
