President Donald Trump has scored a number of rapid-fire wins in his efforts to get other countries to assist the U.S. on border security, as a combination of tariff threats and diplomatic outreach appears to be pushing allies to act.
On Monday, both Canada and Mexico announced new measures to assist the U.S. at their respective borders, which in turn led to the U.S. pausing the implementation of planned tariffs.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his country will be implementing a $1.3 billion border plan and will be appointing a “fentanyl czar.” He also announced new helicopters, technology and enhanced coordination with U.S. authorities.
TRUMP AGREES TO PAUSE TARIFFS ON CANADA IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE BORDER ENFORCEMENT
President Donald Trump (L) talks with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the plenary session of the NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, northeast of London on December 4, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm)
“We will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24/7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering,” Trudeau wrote. “I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl and we will be backing it with $200 million.”
That came just hours before additional 25% tariffs were to take effect on Canadian goods coming into the U.S. and after a phone call between the two leaders.
Hours before that call, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that Mexico is deploying 10,000 troops to the U.S. border in exchange for a pause on similar tariffs that were going to impact Mexican goods entering the U.S.
“These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country,” Trump said on Truth Social.
A VICTORY FOR TRUMP’S ‘FAFO’: HOW THE WHITE HOUSE STRONG-ARMED ONE-TIME CLOSE ALLY COLOMBIA OVER IMMIGRATION
Trump used tariffs in his first term to secure border agreements. The Remain-in-Mexico policy was expanded in 2019 with the agreement of Mexico after a similar threat of tariffs.
A similar threat secured cooperation from Colombia last week. President Gustavo Petro had refused to accept military flights accepting Colombian nationals being deported from the U.S. Trump responded with the threat of a 25% tariffs on all goods from Colombia, a travel ban on Colombian government officials and other steep financial sanctions. He said the tariffs would reach as high as 50% by next week and insisted the migrants being sent back were “illegal criminals.”
Colombia backed down the same day, and two days later accepted the first deportation flights from the U.S.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP)
Not all wins for the administration have required the threat of tariffs, however. On Saturday, Trump announced that Venezuela has agreed to accept back its nationals being deported from the U.S., something it has largely been unwilling to do.
The announcement came after Trump’s envoy for special missions Ric Grenell met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas to discuss his country accepting violent criminals deported from the United States.
EL SALVADOR AGREES TO ACCEPT US DEPORTEES OF ANY NATIONALITY FOLLOWING MEETING WITH RUBIO
On Tuesday, after a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced a safe third country that would allow for illegal immigrants facing deportation to be booked into his country’s prison system.
“We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system,” Bukele wrote on X Monday night. “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
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Rubio said the Salvadoran president “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.”
“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio told reporters, referring to illegal immigrants behind bars in U.S. prisons. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”
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Bukele also said he would take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members in the U.S. illegally, and promised to accept and incarcerate criminal illegal aliens from any country, especially those affiliated with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
Rubio is on his five-nation Central American tour until Thursday and is expected to make stops in Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
Fox News’ Landon Mion, Anders Hagstrom and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
