Mexico moves to help migrants after Trump win

MEXICO CITY — Mexico is scrambling to ready its diplomats in the United States to handle millions of undocumented migrants’ potential needs following Donald Trump’s election, its foreign ministry said Sunday.

The ministry’s North American team huddled with Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu Saturday to “analyze the results of the US election and discuss concrete actions concerning the future of the bilateral relationship” between the two countries, according to a statement.

The meeting follows the Republican billionaire’s victory last Tuesday in a campaign which saw him call illegal Mexican migrants “rapists” and pledge to build a wall along the southern US border.

Not only has Trump vowed to make Mexico pay for the wall, but he has also threatened to renegotiate the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Ruiz Massieu urged diplomats to get ready for a possible surge in consular assistance.

This includes help “avoiding provocations, as well as protecting against fraud,” the Foreign Ministry statement said, referring to the potential for crime rings to prey on migrants by selling fake documents, for example.

The US president-elect on Sunday told CBS television that as many as three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records would be deported or incarcerated.

The United States has an estimated 11-12 million undocumented migrants, mostly of Mexican origin.

“The rights of Mexicans, inside and outside their country, are not negotiable,” the Foreign Ministry stressed.