Trump: U.S., Mexico Reach Deal To Avoid New Tariffs
Trucks pass along a border wall as they get into position to cross into the United States at the border in Tijuana, Mexico, on Friday. Companies have been rushing to ship as many goods as possible out of Mexico to get ahead of possible tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump, hurriedly sending cars, appliances and construction materials across the border to beat Monday’s deadline.
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Updated at 10:25 p.m. ET
The U.S. and Mexico have “reached a signed agreement” that would avert the tariffs that were scheduled to begin on Monday, President Trump said on Friday evening.
As part of the deal, Mexican officials “agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of Migration,” Trump tweeted.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also praised the deal, thanking “all Mexicans who made it possible to avoid the imposition of tariffs on Mexico products exported to the United States.” He called for celebrations in Mexico on Saturday.
Under a joint agreement released by State Department officials, Mexico will assist the United States in curbing migration across the border by deploying its national guard troops through the country, especially its southern border. The agreement also says Mexican authorities will work to dismantle human smuggling operations.
Mexico agrees to accept more migrants seeking asylum in the United States, according to the deal.
For its part, the U.S. promises that those asylum applicants will be “rapidly returned” to Mexico as they await the result of their claims. Mexico agrees to accept them and offer jobs, health care and education.
“The United States looks forward to working alongside Mexico to fulfill these commitments so that we can stem the tide of illegal migration across our southern border and to make our border strong and secure,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., Martha Bárcena, tweeted, “Cooperation for the development and prosperity of southern Mexico and Central America will be strengthened.” The joint statement said the countries recognize the importance of economic development in southern Mexico and Central America.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the National Guard deployment would start on Monday. “I think it’s a fair balance,” Ebrard said.
The agreement did not include a demand from the U.S. that Mexico agree to a “safe third country” designation, requiring the country to permanently accept most asylum seekers from Central America.
Trump announced on May 30 that he would impose a 5% tariff on all goods imported from Mexico beginning June 10, if Mexico did not take action to stop the flow of migrants from Central America into the U.S. After that, he said the tariffs would go up an additional 5% each month until reaching 25% in October, unless the administration were satisfied with the Mexican government’s efforts on immigration.
“If the illegal migration crisis is alleviated through effective actions taken by Mexico, to be determined in our sole discretion and judgment, the Tariffs will be removed,” the president’s statement said.
U.S. and Mexican officials continued the talks, as Mexico tried to reach an agreement to stop the tariffs from going into effect.
Officials meeting at the State Department focused on possible changes to asylum rules and whether Mexico could keep asylum seekers in their country while their cases in the U.S. were adjudicated.
Mexico’s foreign minister announced on Thursday that 6,000 national guard troops would be sent to the country’s southern border with Guatemala. Though, that force was recently established and has not gotten up and running, with estimates of full operations to be underway by 2021.
Earlier Friday, the president said “there is a good chance” the U.S. and Mexico could make a deal.
Border crossings have surged in recent months as Central American families have traveled to the U.S. seeking asylum.
More than 144,000 migrants were taken into custody after crossing the Southern border in May, according to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday.
Trump is facing rare pressure from congressional Republicans over his decision to link immigration policy to trade.
“There is not much support in my conference for tariffs,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters after White House lawyers met with GOP senators at their weekly luncheon on Tuesday.
Lawmakers have warned the tariffs could hurt U.S. businesses and force U.S. consumers to pay more for products imported from Mexico.
U.S. Women’s Quest To Defend World Cup Title Is Only 1 Of The Team’s Goals
The Women’s World Cup kicks off June 7 in Paris. The U.S. is once again the favorite and looking to defend its title from four years ago — even as the team sues U.S. Soccer for gender discrimination.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Women’s World Cup kicked off today with host country France defeating South Korea. Twenty-four teams are vying for the cup, and none is a stronger contender than the United States. The quest to defend their title is only one of the goals the U.S. team is driving toward, as NPR’s Laurel Wamsley reports from Paris.
LAUREL WAMSLEY, BYLINE: Four years ago, the U.S. won the Women’s World Cup, trouncing Japan on the strength of three goals by Carli Lloyd.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: Lloyd, with Morgan streaking – she’s chipping the goalkeeper, off the post and in. Hat trick for Lloyd.
WAMSLEY: That game, broadcast on Fox drew, more than 30 million viewers, shattering TV records for soccer in the United States – men’s or women’s. Now Lloyd is back playing in her fourth World Cup, and many on the team will play in their third, including Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. The U.S. team is ranked No. 1 in the world and plays its first game on Tuesday against Thailand, followed by matches against Chile and Sweden. Though Thailand isn’t a soccer power, Lloyd says in a major tournament like the World Cup, you have to focus on each game as it comes.
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CARLI LLOYD: We obviously want to get to the final. We want to win the final. But a lot can happen in between that. It’s just kind of weathering the storm, winning, whether that’s pretty, ugly, just finding a way to win.
WAMSLEY: This could be the strongest U.S. team ever, with an array of fierce goal-scoring attackers. But other teams have gotten stronger and more tactical, too. Germany, England and France could each win what many believe will be the most competitive Women’s World Cup yet. Accordingly, U.S. coach Jill Ellis has tinkered with the team’s roster in the last few years, moving players around, trying new ones and changing the team’s formation. Ellis says she can considers the U.S. the team to beat.
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JILL ELLIS: Have to – you know, it’s confidence. So much of it is a mindset and an approach. And there’s a lot of good teams, and we’re all aware of that. And – but we want to be the team to beat.
WAMSLEY: The U.S. team is making big moves off the field, too, demanding equal pay for equal work. In March, 28 members of the women’s team sued U.S. Soccer – their employer – arguing that the federation discriminates against them on the basis of their sex by paying them less than the men’s team. The team has also been critical of FIFA, the international governing body, which scheduled the Women’s World Cup final on the same day as the finals of two of its other major international tournaments. And the prize money that FIFA distributes to the teams in the Women’s World Cup is a fraction of what the men win for theirs.
Megan Rapinoe, the U.S. forward who is often outspoken on social issues, says FIFA has made some steps in the right direction in recent years, but that it’s been far too slow given the organization’s capacity for change.
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MEGAN RAPINOE: They have essentially unlimited resources. There’s been such a lack of investment for all of these years and such a lack of care and attention that doubling or tripling or quadrupling investment, care, you know, attention to the women’s game, I think, would be appropriate.
WAMSLEY: And it’s not only the U.S. team that’s frustrated. The best player in the world right now, Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg, won’t be playing in the tournament even though Norway qualified. She says the Norwegian Football Federation hasn’t done enough to support the women’s game, and she’s refused to play for her national team since 2017.
Meanwhile, the U.S. team arrives in France without a few of its stars from four years ago. Hope Solo has been replaced by Alyssa Naeher in goal. And Abby Wambach, the sport’s all-time leading international scorer, says she’s grateful to be watching from the stands this year, having retired in 2015.
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ABBY WAMBACH: When you’re in it, you talk about what an honor it is. You talk about how exciting and fun it is to play in the biggest tournament of your life. But now that I’m away from it, I can speak honestly. It’s super stressful.
WAMSLEY: To win, Wambach says, so many things have to go right, and you need a little luck on your side, too. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News, Paris.
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Poll: Majority Want To Keep Abortion Legal, But They Also Want Restrictions
Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas speaks during a protest against recently passed abortion-ban bills at the state Capitol on May 21 in Atlanta.
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Three-quarters of Americans say they want to keep in place the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade, that made abortion legal in the United States, but a strong majority would like to see restrictions on abortion rights, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll.
What the survey found is a great deal of complexity — and sometimes contradiction among Americans — that goes well beyond the talking points of the loudest voices in the debate. In fact, there’s a high level of dissatisfaction with abortion policy overall. Almost two-thirds of people said they were either somewhat or very dissatisfied, including 66% of those who self-identify as “pro-life” and 62% of those who self-identify as “pro-choice.”
“What it speaks to is the fact that the debate is dominated by the extreme positions on both sides,” said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist Poll, which conducted the survey. “People do see the issue as very complicated, very complex. Their positions don’t fall along one side or the other. … The debate is about the extremes, and that’s not where the public is.”
The poll comes as several states have pushed to limit abortions in hopes of getting the Supreme Court to reconsider the issue. Abortion-rights opponents hope the newly conservative court will either overturn Roe or effectively gut it by upholding severe restrictions. The survey finds that while most Americans favor limiting abortion, they don’t want it to be illegal and don’t want to go as far as states like Alabama, for example, which would ban it completely except if the woman’s life is endangered or health is at risk.
A total of 77% say the Supreme Court should uphold Roe, but within that there’s a lot of nuance — 26% say they would like to see it remain in place, but with more restrictions added; 21% want to see Roe expanded to establish the right to abortion under any circumstance; 16% want to keep it the way it is; and 14% want to see some of the restrictions allowed under Roe reduced. Just 13% overall say it should be overturned.
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Even though Americans are solidly against overturning Roe, a majority would also like to see abortion restricted in various ways. In a separate question, respondents were asked which of six choices comes closest to their view of abortion policy.
In all, 61% said they were in favor of a combination of limitations that included allowing abortion in just the first three months of a pregnancy (23%); only in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman (29%); or only to save the life of the woman (9%).
Anti-abortion demonstrators hold a protest on May 31 outside the Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center in St. Louis, the last location in the state that performs abortions.
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Eighteen percent said abortion should be available to a woman any time she wants during her entire pregnancy. At the other end of the spectrum, 9% said it should never be permitted under any circumstance.
More than half (53%) of Americans say they would definitely not vote for a candidate who would appoint judges to the Supreme Court who would limit or overturn Roe.
Politically, abortion has been a stronger voting issue for Republicans than for Democrats. This poll found that abortion ranks as the second-most-important issue for Republicans in deciding their vote for president, behind immigration. But for Democrats, it is fifth — behind health care, America’s role in the world, climate change and personal financial well-being.
The poll also notably found the highest percentage of people self-identifying as “pro-choice,” those who generally support abortion rights, since a Gallup survey in December 2012. In this survey, 57% identified that way versus 35%, who called themselves “pro-life,” those who are generally opposed to abortion rights.
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The percentage self-identifying as “pro-choice” is an increase since a Marist Poll in February, when the two sides split with 47% each. The pollsters attribute that shift to efforts in various states to severely restrict abortion.
“The public is very reactive to the arguments being put forth by the more committed advocates on both sides of the issue,” Carvalho said, adding, “The danger for Republicans is that when you look at independents, independents are moving more toward Democrats on this issue. … When the debate starts overstepping what public opinion believes to be common sense, we’ve seen independents moving in Democrats’ corner.”
In the case of self-identification, 60% of independents identified as “pro-choice.” Asked which party would do a better job of dealing with the issue of abortion, a plurality of Americans overall chose Democrats (47%) over Republicans (34%).
Independents chose Democrats on the question of which party would do a better job by an 11-point margin (43% to 32%).
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Asked if they’d be more likely to support state laws that decriminalize abortion and make laws less strict or ones that do the opposite, 60% of Americans overall, including two-thirds of independents, chose laws that decriminalize abortion and are less strict.
What specifically do Americans support and oppose?
The poll also asked a long series of questions to try to figure out what Americans support or oppose when it comes to potential changes to abortion laws pending in several states. Poll respondents were not told which states these proposals come from.
The poll found that Americans are very much against requiring fines and/or prison time for doctors who perform abortions. There was also slim majority support for allowing abortions at any time during a pregnancy if there is no viability outside the womb and for requiring insurance companies to cover abortion procedures. A slim majority also opposed allowing pharmacists and health providers the ability to opt out of providing medicine or surgical procedures that result in abortion.
At the same time, two-thirds were in favor of a 24-hour waiting period from the time a woman meets with a health care professional until having the abortion procedure itself; two-thirds wanted doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges; and a slim majority wanted the law to require women to be shown an ultrasound image at least 24 hours before an abortion procedure.
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“What’s most interesting here,” Carvalho said, is that “the extremes are really outliers. When they advocate for their positions and change the debate toward the most extreme position on the issue, they actually do the opposite. They move public opinion away from them.”
The more vocal advocates on either side, however, have had the ability to shift the debate and public opinion to their point of view. Consider that many of the specific items above, at one point or another, have been hotly debated.
When does life begin?
The poll also asked the very big question of when Americans think life begins. There was not an overwhelming consensus. A plurality of the six choices given, but far less than a majority, said life begins at conception (38%). Slightly more than half (53%) disagreed, saying that life begins either within the first eight weeks of pregnancy (8%), the first three months (8%), between three and six months (7%), when a fetus is viable (14%) or at birth (16%).
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Gender gap? Try a stark party divide, particularly among women
The most acute divide among Americans on the issue of abortion, arguably, is not a gender divide but between the parties — and of women of different parties.
For example, 54% of men identified as “pro-choice,” compared with 60% of women. For women of the different parties, 77% of Democratic women identified as “pro-choice,” while 68% of Republican women identified as “pro-life.” (A lower percentage of Republican men, 59%, considered themselves “pro-life.”)
Throughout the poll, the divide was stark. On Roe, for example, 62% of Republican women said overturn it or add restrictions; 73% of Democratic women said keep it the way it is, expand it to allow abortions under any circumstance or reduce some of the restrictions.
Eighty-four percent of Democratic women said they are more likely to support state laws that decriminalize abortion and make laws less strict; 62% of Republican women said they are more likely to support laws that criminalize abortion or make laws stricter.
On requiring insurance companies to cover abortion procedures, 75% of Democratic women support that, while 78% of Republican women oppose it, higher than the 63% of Republican men who said the same.
Republican women also stand out for the 62% of them who said they oppose laws that allow abortion at any time during pregnancy in cases of rape or incest. They are the only group to voice majority opposition to that. Fifty-nine percent of Republican men, for example, said they would support such a law.
And Republican women are the only group to say overwhelmingly that life begins at conception. About three-quarters said so, compared with less than half of Republican men and a third of Democratic women.
It’s a reminder that Republican women, in many ways, are the backbone of the movement opposing abortion rights.
The survey of 944 adults was conducted by live interviewers by telephone from May 31 through June 4. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Editor’s note: The survey asked respondents to identify as either “pro-life” or “pro-choice.” This question wording, using the labels “pro-life” and “pro-choice,” was included in the survey because it has tracked the public debate on abortion over decades. It is sensitive to current events and public discussion even though it does not capture the nuanced positions many people have on the issue.
