MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday said his government was preparing to challenge a new Texas law allowing state law enforcement to arrest suspected migrants, which he called “inhumane.”
On Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the law giving local officers powers long delegated to the U.S. government.
Migrants who enter the United States illegally can already be charged with illegal entry or re-entry under federal laws, but the governor of the border state has criticized what he calls U.S. President Joe Biden’s failure to enforce them.
Abbott has launched a crackdown on illegal immigration in recent years under the name Operation Lone Star, rolling out the National Guard and concertina wire along the border and installing a floating barrier in a stretch of the Rio Grande.
Mexico’s president, a leftist, often criticizes Republican Abbott as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, in his morning press conferences. He has urged Mexican-Americans to not vote for either.
“The foreign ministry is already working on the process to challenge this law,” Lopez Obrador said.
Abbott “wants to win popularity with these measures, but he’s not going to win anything, but he’ll lose favor, because in Texas there are so many Mexicans and migrants,” the president added.
Mexico’s foreign ministry and Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle and Kylie Madry, Editing by Franklin Paul)
