By Diego Oré, Laura Gottesdiener, Ted Hesson and Jose Luis Gonzalez

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – At a remote military checkpoint in the Mexican desert some 25 miles (40 km) south of the border city of Ciudad Juarez, immigration agents bundled dozens of migrants onto a bus headed south on a hot night in September. 

Hundreds of scenes like this one, witnessed on Sept. 24 by a Reuters reporter, form part of Mexico’s largest ever migration crackdown. 

The crackdown encompasses a growing program to bus and fly non-Mexican migrants to the country’s south, far from the U.S. border, along with widespread detentions and administrative obstacles, according to public data and conversations with a dozen U.S. and Mexican officials. 

Partly as a result of Mexico’s efforts, the number of migrants caught by U.S. authorities at the border in recent months fell sharply to the lowest level since 2020, taking some heat out of an issue on which, polls show, voters trust Republican candidate Donald Trump more than his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.

“A border perceived to be out of control is fuel for Donald Trump,” said Justin Gest, an immigration expert and professor at George Mason University. Mexico’s crackdown helps the Biden administration throw “water over that fire,” he said.

Collectively, the measures aim to tire migrants so they give up before reaching U.S. territory, five Mexican officials told Reuters. Mexico is on track to bus a third more migrants to its southern states this year, previously unreported data shows. 

Venezuelan Jose Díaz was detained by migration agents in the northern border city of Tijuana and then taken by bus over 2,000 miles (3,500 km) to the southern city of Villahermosa, over a three-day journey early in September. 

“They send you back and then you have to head north all over again,” he said.

The officials asked not to be named to discuss measures that contrast with the Mexican government’s stated humanitarian migration policy. In response to Reuters questions, Mexico’s foreign ministry said the goal was to protect migrants from human traffickers, not exhaust them.

Now in its tenth month, the crackdown followed pressure from the United States, the Mexican officials told Reuters, including the temporary closure in December of several trade routes into Mexico at an estimated daily cost of $100 million, and explicit requests by U.S. officials in private meetings and in a phone call between President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart. 

Harris has used the U.S. numbers to argue in her campaign that the Biden administration has been tough on border issues.

While Trump has increasingly turned toward darker and more violent language about immigrants, Mexico itself has been less of a target than in his 2016 campaign.

That is the point of the crackdown, one senior Mexican official said: Mexico is determined not to be the focus of the election.

Newly inaugurated Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said she will work closely with whoever wins the White House, and the foreign ministry said the country’s migration strategy was unrelated to the election. Sheinbaum’s office did not reply to a request for comment.

The Harris campaign declined to comment. The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment. 

In response to Reuters questions to the White House, a senior official said Mexico acted in its own interests, adding that both sides made “a joint effort to address” the issue. The official requested anonymity as a condition of the interview.

PRESSURE

Starting in late November last year, the United States experienced a spike in border apprehensions, after the Mexican government suspended busing and flying of migrants, citing a funding crunch.

In response, the Biden administration closed several commercial border ports, including busy Texas railway bridges in El Paso and Eagle Pass on Dec. 18, citing the need to redirect personnel to process migrants. 

One former senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official who served under Trump said no such lengthy closures occurred under the former president, despite his repeated threats to shut the border over immigration.

The cost to Mexican companies, around $100 million per day in lost trade according to business lobby Coparmex, dwarfs the $158 million that internal government documents seen by Reuters show Mexico allocated to internal busing and flying of migrants over the previous four years.

On Dec. 22, the day after a call between President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looming on Dec. 27, the Mexican president said the country had a plan to “strengthen” its migration program.

The buses quickly reappeared, carrying more migrants than before. 

The bridge closures were an operational necessity that had the additional benefit of pressuring Mexico, three current and former U.S. officials told Reuters.

It “certainly got Mexico’s attention,” a senior State Department official said. 

The move put Mexico “between a rock and a hard place” said one Mexican official, who along with two others said they understood it as a way to force the government’s hand.

Mexico’s foreign ministry, in its response to Reuters questions, said the closures responded mainly to U.S. internal security and were not aimed “specifically at pressuring Mexico.” 

In the meetings with Blinken and on a subsequent call with Biden, Mexico offered to do more, the five Mexican government officials said. 

In January, Mexico increased checkpoints on highways and railroads heading north.

Starting in March, Mexico’s National Migration Institute, INM, allocated $30 million for local low-cost airline Viva Aerobus to operate migrant flights in 2024, almost triple the amount allocated to the company in 2023, government documents seen by Reuters show. INM allocated around $5 million for migrant transport each year in 2023 and 2024 to airline Magnicharters, the documents showed.

Roberto Alcantara, the owner of Viva Aerobus, also owns coach company Turistar, which INM paid more than $65 million since last year for the busing program, government documents show. 

Alcantara, Viva Aerobus, Magnicharters and Turistar did not respond to requests for comment. INM did not reply to questions about the contracts.

Reuters could not establish if other companies had similar contracts. 

Mexico’s foreign ministry said the United States does not fund Mexico’s migration program.

The Biden administration’s broad asylum ban implemented in early June has contributed to decreasing U.S. apprehensions, U.S. officials have said. With U.S. funding, Panama in August started regular deportation flights for migrants caught crossing the dangerous Darien jungle, part of U.S. efforts across Central America to keep migrants from reaching Mexico.

Nonetheless, Mexico’s effort has been “absolutely crucial,” for lowering U.S. migrant apprehensions, said Wayne Cornelius, director emeritus of the Mexican Migration Field Research Program at the University of California-San Diego. His comments were echoed by the U.S. and Mexican officials.

At the same time as it increased busing, Mexico slowed immigration and asylum processing. Public data shows a 97% drop this year in issuance of humanitarian visitor cards, a key document migrants use to avoid detentions. 

INM permanently closed 10 offices where migrants apply for this document this year, two of the sources said. Refugee applications dropped by half in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period a year earlier, public data shows.

These steps were deliberate measures to make it harder for migrants to traverse the country, three of the Mexican sources said. INM did not respond to a question about the administrative measures. 

BUSES 

As they boarded the white commercial coach witnessed by Reuters at the Samalayuca military checkpoint near Ciudad Juarez in September, at least one of the migrants had their hands cuffed with parcel ties, Reuters photographs show.

The bus was headed to the city of Monterrey, some 700 miles (1,100 km) to the southeast, and from there the migrants were to be flown further south, a source with knowledge of the operation told Reuters. The news agency could not independently confirm the destination of the bus.

In response to Reuters questions, INM said it carries out immigration control actions “by air, sea and land,” It did not answer questions about the number of migrants, their nationalities, the bus’ destination or custody conditions, including why a man was cuffed. 

Mexico’s government calls migrant detentions “rescues” that save people from smugglers. It rarely talks about the busing program in public comments. 

However, Ana Saiz, head of the legal advisory unit at Mexico’s public defender’s office, which advises migrants and Mexican citizens, called busing an “illegal practice.” She and other legal experts cited cases where migrants were transported without any record of their detention until reaching the destination in the south, and violations of immigration and custody rules, including consular access.  

“There was no communication, no documents, nothing,” said Milka, a Tanzanian migrant, picked up by immigration agents in the northern state of Sonora and transported some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) south to Villahermosa.

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union formally approved imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) on Tuesday after an investigation that has divided the bloc and prompted retaliation from Beijing.

The European Commission has set rates ranging from 7.8% for Tesla (NASDAQ:) to 35.3% for China’s SAIC and other producers deemed not to have cooperated with the EU’s anti-subsidy probe. These will be on top of the EU’s standard 10% car import duty.

WHEN AND FOR HOW LONG?

The EU plans to publish its regulation imposing tariffs later on Tuesday or early on Wednesday.

Final or “definitive” tariffs are expected to apply from the following day for five years.

The Commission has decided that provisional duties dating back to July will not be collected. Companies had been able to cover these with a bank guarantee.

The tariff imposition follows a vote on the Commission’s proposal for definitive tariffs by the EU’s 27 members on Oct. 4 – with 10 in favour, five against and 12 abstentions.

CONTINUED TALKS WITH BEIJING

The Commission has said it is willing to continue negotiating an alternative to tariffs with China even after tariffs are imposed. Both sides have agreed to a ninth round of technical negotiations, although the EU said there were “large remaining gaps”.

The EU executive said last month it could re-examine price undertakings – involving minimum import prices and typically volume caps – having previously rejected those Chinese companies have offered.

Previous minimum price deals agreed by the EU have been for homogenous commodities, rather than complex products such as cars. The Commission believes a single minimum price would not be adequate to counter injury caused by subsidies.

It might also have to be different for separate producers, depending on the value of sales and receipt of subsidies.

Beijing has repeatedly warned the Commission against separate negotiations with EV companies. Various manufacturers have authorised the China Chamber of Commerce for Machinery and Electronics to negotiate on their behalf.

The Commission has said any alternative must be in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, adequate to remove the injury due to subsidies, and enforceable.

CHINESE RETALIATION

In moves seen as retaliation, China has launched anti-dumping investigations into EU exports of pork and brandy, and an anti-subsidy probe into EU dairy products, but it has yet to impose any measures.

The EU launched a challenge at the WTO in September against the dairy probe.

China’s Commerce Ministry has also met with automakers and industry associations to discuss raising import duties on large-engined gasoline vehicles, which would hit German producers hardest.

Germany’s exports of vehicles with engines of 2.5 litres or larger to China were worth $1.2 billion last year, Chinese customs data shows.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE INVESTIGATION?

Any company not in the sample group of BYD (SZ:), Geely and SAIC that wishes to have its own individual duty can ask for an “accelerated review” just after the imposition of definitive measures. Such a review should last a maximum of nine months.

The Commission can also carry out an “interim review” after a year has elapsed if the measures are no longer necessary or if they are not sufficient to counteract subsidies.

The Commission often looks into whether producers are evading duties via exports of parts for assembly elsewhere. For the EU, such circumvention exists if 60% or more of the value of parts are imported from the country subject to duties and if the value added in the assembly is no more than 25%.

Companies can dispute the measures at the European Court of Justice. China has already launched a challenge at the WTO. Both legal paths can take well over a year.

The Commission has said it is confident its investigation and measures are compatible with WTO rules.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -Israel’s decision to ban the U.N. relief agency UNRWA could result in the deaths of more children and represent a form of collective punishment for Gazans if fully implemented, U.N. agencies said on Tuesday.

A law passed by Israel on Monday to ban the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency from operating inside Israel has raised concerns about its ability to provide relief in Gaza after over a year of war. The agency, which employs thousands of people in Gaza, provides nearly the entire population of the coastal enclave with basic supplies and needs access through Israel.

“If UNRWA is unable to operate, it’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who has worked extensively in Gaza since the Oct. 7 war began. “So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children.”

Palestinian health authorities’ data show that over 13,300 children whose identities have been confirmed have been killed in the Gaza war. Many more are believed to have died from diseases due to a collapsing medical system and food and water shortages.

Other U.N. agencies described UNRWA’s work as indispensable.

The World Health Organization’s Tarik Jasarevic said that about a third of the healthcare workers helping with the ongoing polio vaccination campaign for children in Gaza work with UNRWA. UNRWA has about 1,000 health workers in Gaza, he added.

In response to a question about whether the ban represented a form of collective punishment against Gazans, U.N. humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke said: “I think it is a fair description of what they have decided here, if implemented, that this would add to the acts of collective punishment that we have seen imposed on Gaza.”

Collective punishment, which amounts to a war crime, is a term referring to sanctions or harassment against a group taken in retaliation for acts by individual members of that group.

Israel says it makes all possible efforts to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Palestinian militant group Hamas of deliberately basing its fighters in residential areas and using civilians as human shields.

Explaining the ban, Israeli officials cited the involvement of UNRWA staffers in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel which triggered the Gaza war. The U.N. said in August that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the attacks and fired them.

The head of the International Organization for Migration, Amy Pope, said IOM could not replace UNRWA in Gaza but that it could provide more relief to those in crisis.