Three Americans checked into a resort on the same day and died within a week. Now their families want answers - CNN

Suddenly, she felt ill after a drink from the minibar, family spokesman Jay McDonald told CNN affiliate WFMZ. Shortly after, she collapsed and died.

Schaup-Werner is one of three Americans who've mysteriously died within a week at a resort in the Caribbean nation.

Five days later, Maryland couple Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, missed their scheduled checkout time at another hotel at the same resort. When hotel employees checked on them, they were dead, police said.

'We just want to understand this'

Hotel workers found Holmes and Day on May 30. They checked into the hotel on May 25 -- the same day as Schaup-Werner and her husband, Dan Werner, who were celebrating their wedding anniversary.

"The bizarre issue of the same hotel and these things happening within days of each other and the complete unexpected nature of what happened to Miranda, we just want to understand this," McDonald told the affiliate.

"At one point, she was sitting there happily smiling and taking pictures and the next moment she was in acute pain and called out for Dan and she collapsed."

Holmes' daughter said she wants the mystery of her father's death solved.

"It should have never happened," Dajuan Holmes-Hamilton said.

Taxi driver says victim appeared happy

A taxi driver who picked up Schaup-Werner and her husband from Santo Domingo Airport and dropped them off at the resort told CNN the couple appeared happy and tipped generously.

The driver, who did not want to be identified, said the trip took 40 minutes from the airport to the hotel. Once they arrived, he helped them with their luggage and took off.

Days later, the driver said, he went to pick them up for their return trip back to the airport, and was told they'd checked out.

He found out Schaup-Werner had died from the news, he said.

Maryland couple took part in other activities

Holmes and Day were from Prince George's County, and were supposed to fly back home the day they were found.

They'd spent several days in the Dominican Republic taking part in several activities. Three days before they were found dead, they went on an excursion to Isla Saona, according to Bahia Principe Hotel. The hotel also believes the couple visited the capital of Santo Domingo because a bag from a pharmacy there was found in the room.

Days before their deaths, Holmes posted Facebook photos of him and Day enjoying their time in open waters.

"Boat ride of a lifetime!!!" one caption said.

Authorities give more details

The bodies of all three Americans were transported to forensic science institutes in the the nation for examinations, officials said.

In the case of Schaup-Werner, paramedics provided first aid, but she died in the room, according to Col. Frank Felix Durán Mejia of the Dominican Republic National Police. Her cause of death has not been determined, and a toxicology report is pending, but no violence was involved, the police official said.

Prosecutors are investigating the circumstances of her death, the nation's attorney general's office said Wednesday.

As for Day and Holmes, police said an autopsy concluded the couple had respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, an abnormal buildup of fluid in the lungs.

Blood pressure medications were found in the room, along with three medications, including an opioid and an anti-inflammatory, according to police and the attorney general.

Resort's information differs from officials

The resort operator, Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts, said it followed all security protocols. There are no indications of any connection between the two cases, it said.

Authorities did not provide a cause of death in Schaup-Werner's case. However, the resort said it "was determined to be a heart attack." It said her husband provided statements saying she had a history of heart conditions.

McDonald said Schaup-Werner was treated for a heart condition 15 years ago but had not had more recent issues.

"She had been seemingly healthy. He was not aware of anything going on with her health," he told the affiliate.

And while police told CNN on Monday that Day and Holmes died as a result of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, the hotel said Wednesday that their cause of death has not been determined.

"The case of Mr. Holmes and Ms. Day remains under investigation by the authorities with the results of toxicology tests still pending," the resort operator said. "We disapprove of any conjecture on possible causes of death and urge all to respect the families while the investigation is ongoing."

It said Schaup-Werner was at the Bahia Principe Bouganville while Holmes and Day were at Bahia Principe La Romana.

Millions of Americans visit the Caribbean nation

Tourism is a key part of the nation's economy, and its coastal resorts are a popular choice for travelers.

The tourism industry made up more than 17% of the country's economy last year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.

In 2018, about 6.5 million tourists visited the Dominican Republic, more than any other Caribbean nation, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. The country attracted 2.2 million tourists from the United States, which is more than any other country in the region.

Forty-eight Americans died in the Dominican Republic between 2016 to 2018. The deaths were a result of several things, including drowning, homicide, suicide, vehicle or other types of accidents, the State Department said.

New York couple killed in a crash

The three recent deaths happened a few months after a car crash in the Dominican Republic killed two other Americans.

In March, a car carrying New York tourists Orlando Moore and Portia Ravenelle plunged into the Caribbean after the pair left for the Santo Domingo airport to catch a flight home, the nation's police said. The body of Moore, 40, was found at sea, authorities said.

Fishermen found Ravenelle, 52, and took her to the hospital, but she died days later.

CNN's Rosa Flores reported from the Dominican Republic and Faith Karimi wrote and reported from Atlanta. CNN's Jamiel Lynch, Kevin Conlon and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/us/dominican-republic-resort-deaths-thursday/index.html

2019-06-06 09:37:00Z
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World War II Paratrooper Recounts Parachuting Into Normandy On D-Day - NPR

Enlarge this image

Leslie Cruise, a World War II veteran, pays his respects to Pvt. Richard Vargas with a wreath laying ceremony at Lorraine American National Cemetery and Memorial, St. Avold, France, on June 2, 2014. Senior Airman Hailey Haux/U.S. Air Force hide caption

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Senior Airman Hailey Haux/U.S. Air Force

Retired Pvt. Leslie P. Cruise, 95, remembers June 6, 1944 clearly. Standing at the airplane's edge, preparing to jump onto the enemy lines of Normandy on D-Day, fear didn't occur to him.

"It was very moving and exciting," Cruise tells NPR's Noel King. "We fly over the channel, you can look out the window and see the silhouettes of the ships. We know what's going to happen now; we've talked about it but look at all those ships down there, my gosh."

The nonagenarian, who joined the military in 1943, is one of the last surviving paratroopers from World War II. Were it not for Cruise and the success of his division, the 82^nd Airborne, the course of history might have looked remarkably different.

Four years prior to Cruise's enlistment, Adolf Hitler began annexing land in Europe and exerting force across the continent. The D-Day operation, which took over a year to plan and became the world's largest seaborne invasion, was an attempt to block Hitler's army and reverse the direction of influence on the battlefield.

"The paratroopers played an absolutely key role on D-Day," says Keith Huxen, senior director of research and history at the World War II Museum in New Orleans. After parachuting down, they could commandeer crucial holding spots and protect the troops coming in from the beaches.

Cruise prepared to jump on the night of June 4, but the operation was delayed due to weather. The paratrooper, dressed and ready to go, slept atop his grenades until Gen. Eisenhower OK'd the mission the next day.

Crouching on the plane with his fellow paratroopers in the 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Cruise readied himself.

"It was a lot of noise," he remembers. "You've got hundreds of planes one after the other – vroom, vroom! Well, there they go, we're going next," Cruise says.

Enlarge this image

Two days before the 75th anniversary of D-Day, Leslie Cruise poses at his home in Horsham, Pa., on June 4, 2019. William Jones/NPR hide caption

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William Jones/NPR

Given the greenlight to jump, he says, it was "like a slingshot out the door."

Then, he says, the parachute snapped open. "You think, 'Ah, good. That's the best feeling,'" Cruise says. "I'm not coming down at 90 miles an hour."

One of more than 13,000 American paratroopers on D-Day, Cruise survived the world's deadliest war. Almost half of the men in the 82^nd Airborne Division suffered causalities or went missing in action.

Cruise's friend Pvt. Richard Vargas was one of those who died on the battlefield. Cruise watched him die beside him during the mission. Cruise and his division were charged with liberating French towns from the Germans. They saw 33 days of severe fighting.

"His body was sacrificed for mine, simple as that," Cruise says. "So that was a traumatic experience among others but that was probably the most moving. So I always think of that as my physical salvation."

Following D-Day, Cruise parachuted into Holland for Operation Market Garden and was injured by shrapnel in Belgium. To this day Cruise still has almost a half-inch of shrapnel in his wrist, according to an interview with National Geographic, which ended his military career and sent him back to America.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania on the GI Bill and enjoyed a long career as an architect. He takes pride in his family, which includes 15 great-grandchildren.

Now seven decades removed from his service, the veteran wants to honor the legacy of his comrades-in-arms by sharing his story.

"It was them, it could have been me. But I've been blessed that way and so you have to go and account for it one day."

The number of World War II veterans who can tell their stories is shrinking rapidly. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 348 World War II veterans die every day.

Asked how Americans can honor veterans and commemorate D-Day, Cruise underscores civic responsibility.

"I want [people] to appreciate what history has done for them and what it has done for this country," Cruise says. "Sacrifice is not just done by the World War II generation. ... Show some citizenship."

Victoria Whitley-Berry and William Jones produced and edited this story for broadcast.

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https://www.npr.org/2019/06/06/729967231/world-war-ii-paratrooper-on-commemorating-d-day-show-some-citizenship

2019-06-06 09:00:00Z
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D-Day 75th anniversary marked by Trump and world leaders: Live updates - CNN

US President Donald Trump is traveling to the Normandy beaches to mark three-quarters of a century since Americans and their allies stormed the shore in a bid to wrest Europe from the Nazis.

"We are gathered here on freedom's altar," Trump will say in his remarks, according to excerpts of the speech provided by the White House. "On these shores, on these bluffs, on this day 75 years ago, 10,000 men shed their blood -- and thousands sacrificed their lives -- for their brothers, for their countries, and for the survival of liberty."

President Donald Trump at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Portsmouth, England, on Wednesday.

Trump is the latest in a string of presidents to mark the anniversary of D-Day in France, each successive ceremony seeing fewer and fewer of the veterans who carried out the harrowing mission make it back to the windswept cliffs and stretches of sand. Now in their 90s, and of a thinning generation with first-hand memory of the war, those veterans will join Trump and other world leaders to mark the occasion near the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

Trump is expected to deliver remarks and meet with some of the few remaining survivors from that day -- many of whom were teenagers when they received their orders. Later he'll sit for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron before departing for his golf course in Ireland, where he is spending two nights.

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https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/d-day-trump-commemorations-gbr-intl/index.html

2019-06-06 08:47:00Z
52780309855640

D-Day 75th anniversary marked by Trump and world leaders: Live updates - CNN

US President Donald Trump is traveling to the Normandy beaches to mark three-quarters of a century since Americans and their allies stormed the shore in a bid to wrest Europe from the Nazis.

"We are gathered here on freedom's altar," Trump will say in his remarks, according to excerpts of the speech provided by the White House. "On these shores, on these bluffs, on this day 75 years ago, 10,000 men shed their blood -- and thousands sacrificed their lives -- for their brothers, for their countries, and for the survival of liberty."

President Donald Trump at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Portsmouth, England, on Wednesday.

Trump is the latest in a string of presidents to mark the anniversary of D-Day in France, each successive ceremony seeing fewer and fewer of the veterans who carried out the harrowing mission make it back to the windswept cliffs and stretches of sand. Now in their 90s, and of a thinning generation with first-hand memory of the war, those veterans will join Trump and other world leaders to mark the occasion near the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

Trump is expected to deliver remarks and meet with some of the few remaining survivors from that day -- many of whom were teenagers when they received their orders. Later he'll sit for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron before departing for his golf course in Ireland, where he is spending two nights.

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https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/d-day-trump-commemorations-gbr-intl/index.html

2019-06-06 08:37:00Z
52780309855640

D-Day 75th anniversary marked by Trump and world leaders: Live updates - CNN

US President Donald Trump is traveling to the Normandy beaches to mark three-quarters of a century since Americans and their allies stormed the shore in a bid to wrest Europe from the Nazis.

"We are gathered here on freedom's altar," Trump will say in his remarks, according to excerpts of the speech provided by the White House. "On these shores, on these bluffs, on this day 75 years ago, 10,000 men shed their blood -- and thousands sacrificed their lives -- for their brothers, for their countries, and for the survival of liberty."

President Donald Trump at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Portsmouth, England, on Wednesday.

Trump is the latest in a string of presidents to mark the anniversary of D-Day in France, each successive ceremony seeing fewer and fewer of the veterans who carried out the harrowing mission make it back to the windswept cliffs and stretches of sand. Now in their 90s, and of a thinning generation with first-hand memory of the war, those veterans will join Trump and other world leaders to mark the occasion near the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

Trump is expected to deliver remarks and meet with some of the few remaining survivors from that day -- many of whom were teenagers when they received their orders. Later he'll sit for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron before departing for his golf course in Ireland, where he is spending two nights.

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https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/d-day-trump-commemorations-gbr-intl/index.html

2019-06-06 07:49:00Z
52780309855640

Border Arrests Surge to Seven-Year High as Mexico Tries to Head Off Tariffs - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Central American migrants surged across the United States border with Mexico in record numbers in May, officials announced Wednesday, as American and Mexican diplomats began discussions at the White House in a bid to avert potentially crippling economic consequences of President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports.

More than 144,278 migrants were arrested and taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection along the southwest border during May, a 32 percent increase from April and the highest monthly total in seven years. Most crossed the border illegally, while about 10 percent arrived without the proper documentation at ports of entry along the border.

Vice President Mike Pence and other top administration officials are set to meet Wednesday with Mexico’s top diplomat. Mr. Trump has vowed to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico beginning Monday and to increase the tax to 25 percent by October if Mexico does not prevent migrants from illegally entering the United States.

The announcement of the surge in border crossings was designed to put pressure on the Mexican government to meet Mr. Trump’s demands that the government take action quickly. But it remained unclear what will satisfy the president, who has offered conflicting statements about his intentions.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that it was “more likely that the tariffs” would be imposed. But on Wednesday, the president said he believed Mexico was ready to make a deal to prevent the tariffs from going into effect.

”Mexico, you know, wants to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said during a trip to Ireland. “They have their entire delegation right now going over to probably the White House location to negotiate with our people.”

Mexican officials, along with Republican lawmakers, are trying to prevent Mr. Trump from imposing tariffs on Monday, as he has threatened. Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican foreign minister, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday afternoon at the White House with Mr. Pence, a senior administration official said, in an effort to convince the president that Mexico is doing everything it can to help prevent illegal immigration across the United States border. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Robert Lighthizer, the United States Trade Representative, were also expected to attend the meeting.

Mr. Trump, frustrated by what he views as Mexico’s failure to stem the flow of migrants, said he would use broad emergency powers to impose punishing tariffs on the country. But top American officials have spoken in vague terms about what steps Mexico must take, and it remains unclear exactly what Mexico could do to persuade Mr. Trump to back down.

Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser who has advocated using levies to punish Mexico, said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that Mr. Trump’s threat had gotten the Mexican government’s attention and that the United States might not have to impose the tariffs.

“We believe that these tariffs may not have to go into effect precisely because we have the Mexicans’ attention,” Mr. Navarro said

He outlined several things that Mexico must do to prevent the tariffs, including committing to taking “all the asylum seekers and applying Mexican laws which are much stronger than ours.”

He also urged Mexico to do more to secure its border with Guatemala and tighten check points for migrants within Mexico.

Mr. Ebrard has also expressed optimism, telling reporters on Tuesday in Washington that there was an 80 percent chance that Mr. Trump would not impose the tariffs.

But others in Washington were more doubtful that the two sides could come to a resolution before Monday’s deadline. Carlos Heredia, a professor at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas in Mexico City, said Tuesday that whatever action Mexico takes to prevent migration into the United States, it was unlikely to satisfy the president.

“If there is any logic to the way that President Trump handles policy, it’s that he likes conflict,” Mr. Heredia said. “I don’t think that there is a way to please Trump.”

Others said that it would take time for Mexico to make the changes the Trump administration was requesting.

Image

Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican foreign minister, on Tuesday at the Capitol in Washington.CreditErin Schaff/The New York Times

“This is not going to happen in seven days,” said Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States. “You can’t enforce your way out of a migration crisis.”

Mr. Trump’s threat to tax Mexican products has rattled financial markets and prompted an outcry from businesses that would be affected, including automakers, agricultural companies and retailers. The chairman of the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday that the central bank was watching Mr. Trump’s trade war warily and would act to prevent economic damage from the conflict.

Mr. Trump has made heavy use of tariffs on trading partners from China to Europe, but imposing tariffs on Mexico, the United States’ largest trading partner, would be a significant escalation in the president’s trade war. Mexico is a key supplier of products like fresh tomatoes and grapes; bluejeans; televisions; medical devices; and automobiles. Many companies have created supply chains that snake back and forth across the border — meaning some companies could be forced to pay Mr. Trump’s tariff multiple times as their products travel from farms to factories to consumers.

Businesses are also worried that the president’s move risks derailing what would be his signature trade achievement: passing the newly negotiated North American trade agreement.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement was signed last year, but it still needs to be ratified by legislators in all three countries. Mexico submitted the text to its Senate hours before Mr. Trump’s threat. But Mexican officials are unlikely to move forward with that vote with the threat of tariffs hanging over them.

Mr. Ebrard, who has been in Washington all week meeting with Trump administration officials and members of Congress, said earlier in the week that Mexico was already enforcing its own immigration laws but argued that there was more the countries could do to work together. He said Mexican officials had come to Washington ready to “design actions together.”

Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, repeated the administration’s demands in an interview with The Hill published on Tuesday. He said Mexico must crack down on illegal crossings from Guatemala, and use American intelligence to target smuggling operations that try to sneak migrants across the border.

Mr. McAleenan also said the administration expects Mexico to help tighten the shared border, even though the Mexican government has agreed to take in migrants while their asylum cases are processed in the United States.

“We can’t have the situation where 1,000 people in one group can cross the border at 4 a.m. without any interdiction or any effort to stop that unlawful activity,” said Mr. McAleenan, citing a group that illegally crossed last week into El Paso. The group of 1,036 migrants was the largest ever recorded by the Department of Homeland Security to cross illegally into the United States.

But Mexico has maintained that it is already taking action to stem the flow of migrants.

Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Martha Bárcena, said in a press conference Monday that without Mexico’s efforts, many more migrants would be arriving at American borders.

“There is a clear limit to what we can negotiate,” Ms. Bárcena said. “And that limit is Mexican dignity.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Ebrard met for a half-hour with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other Democratic lawmakers.

Republican senators are also mobilizing to prevent the White House from moving ahead with tariffs, warning Mr. Trump on Tuesday that they were almost uniformly opposed to his plans to tax Mexican imports.

Several big states would be hit hard by the proposed tariffs on Mexican products, including Texas, Michigan, California, Illinois and Ohio, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re holding a gun to our own heads,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

Officials at Customs and Border Protection were making preparations on Wednesday to begin imposing the tariffs just after midnight on Monday morning.

In an interview, a Customs spokesman said the department was waiting for Mr. Trump to issue a presidential proclamation, which would then by followed by a Federal Register notice, outlining the basis for the tariffs and the universe of Mexican products to which they would apply. But even without a formal order establishing the tariffs, Customers workers are already building up the informational technology infrastructure needed to apply the tariffs on Monday morning to importers bringing in goods from Mexico.

Officials said they were readying technical guidance for importers, to help them properly fill out paperwork and pay the appropriate tariff — and preparing to assist those importers who have grown accustomed to paying no tariffs under the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

They also said administration officials are still discussing whether there will be exemptions for certain industries from the tariffs, and whether there will be a formal process for American companies to apply for tariff exclusions for certain products they import, as was the case with steel and aluminum tariffs and some tariffs on products from China.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/us/politics/mexico-tariffs.html

2019-06-05 18:42:51Z
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Trump Says Mexico 'Wants to Make a Deal' as Mexican Officials Head to White House to Avoid Tariffs - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence and other top administration officials will meet Wednesday with Mexico’s top diplomat as both sides try to avert the potentially crippling economic consequences of President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports.

Mr. Trump has vowed to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico beginning Monday and to increase the tax to 25 percent by October if Mexico does not prevent migrants from illegally entering the United States. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that it was “more likely that the tariffs” would be imposed. But on Wednesday, the president said he believed Mexico was ready to make a deal to prevent the tariffs from going into effect.

”Mexico, you know, wants to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said during a trip to Ireland. “They have their entire delegation right now going over to probably the White House location to negotiate with our people.”

Mexican officials, along with Republican lawmakers, are trying to prevent Mr. Trump from imposing tariffs on Monday, as he has threatened. Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican foreign minister, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday afternoon at the White House with Mr. Pence, a senior administration official said, in an effort to convince the president that Mexico is doing everything it can to help prevent illegal immigration across the United States border. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Robert Lighthizer, the United States Trade Representative, were also expected to attend the meeting.

Mr. Trump, frustrated by what he views as Mexico’s failure to stem the flow of migrants, said he would use broad emergency powers to impose punishing tariffs on the country. But top American officials have spoken in vague terms about what steps Mexico must take, and it remains unclear exactly what Mexico could do to persuade Mr. Trump to back down.

Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser who has advocated using levies to punish Mexico, said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that Mr. Trump’s threat had gotten the Mexican government’s attention and that the United States might not have to impose the tariffs.

“We believe that these tariffs may not have to go into effect precisely because we have the Mexicans’ attention,” Mr. Navarro said

He outlined several things that Mexico must do to prevent the tariffs, including committing to taking “all the asylum seekers and applying Mexican laws which are much stronger than ours.”

He also urged Mexico to do more to secure its border with Guatemala and tighten check points for migrants within Mexico.

Mr. Ebrard has also expressed optimism, telling reporters on Tuesday in Washington that there was an 80 percent chance that Mr. Trump would not impose the tariffs.

But others in Washington were more doubtful that the two sides could come to a resolution before Monday’s deadline. Carlos Heredia, a professor at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas in Mexico City, said Tuesday that whatever action Mexico takes to prevent migration into the United States, it was unlikely to satisfy the president.

“If there is any logic to the way that President Trump handles policy, it’s that he likes conflict,” Mr. Heredia said. “I don’t think that there is a way to please Trump.”

Others said that it would take time for Mexico to make the changes the Trump administration was requesting.

“This is not going to happen in seven days,” said Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States. “You can’t enforce your way out of a migration crisis.”

Mr. Trump’s threat to tax Mexican products has rattled financial markets and prompted an outcry from businesses that would be affected, including automakers, agricultural companies and retailers. The chairman of the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday that the central bank was watching Mr. Trump’s trade war warily and would act to prevent economic damage from the conflict.

Image

Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican foreign minister, on Tuesday at the Capitol in Washington.CreditErin Schaff/The New York Times

Mr. Trump has made heavy use of tariffs on trading partners from China to Europe, but imposing tariffs on Mexico, the United States’ largest trading partner, would be a significant escalation in the president’s trade war. Mexico is a key supplier of products like fresh tomatoes and grapes; bluejeans; televisions; medical devices; and automobiles. Many companies have created supply chains that snake back and forth across the border — meaning some companies could be forced to pay Mr. Trump’s tariff multiple times as their products travel from farms to factories to consumers.

Businesses are also worried that the president’s move risks derailing what would be his signature trade achievement: passing the newly negotiated North American trade agreement.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement was signed last year, but it still needs to be ratified by legislators in all three countries. Mexico submitted the text to its Senate hours before Mr. Trump’s threat. But Mexican officials are unlikely to move forward with that vote with the threat of tariffs hanging over them.

Mr. Ebrard, who has been in Washington all week meeting with Trump administration officials and members of Congress, said earlier in the week that Mexico was already enforcing its own immigration laws but argued that there was more the countries could do to work together. He said Mexican officials had come to Washington ready to “design actions together.”

Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, repeated the administration’s demands in an interview with The Hill published on Tuesday. He said Mexico must crack down on illegal crossings from Guatemala, and use American intelligence to target smuggling operations that try to sneak migrants across the border.

Mr. McAleenan also said the administration expects Mexico to help tighten the shared border, even though the Mexican government has agreed to take in migrants while their asylum cases are processed in the United States.

“We can’t have the situation where 1,000 people in one group can cross the border at 4 a.m. without any interdiction or any effort to stop that unlawful activity,” said Mr. McAleenan, citing a group that illegally crossed last week into El Paso. The group of 1,036 migrants was the largest ever recorded by the Department of Homeland Security to cross illegally into the United States.

But Mexico has maintained that it is already taking action to stem the flow of migrants.

Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Martha Bárcena, said in a press conference Monday that without Mexico’s efforts, many more migrants would be arriving at American borders.

“There is a clear limit to what we can negotiate,” Ms. Bárcena said. “And that limit is Mexican dignity.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Ebrard met for a half-hour with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other Democratic lawmakers.

Republican senators are also mobilizing to prevent the White House from moving ahead with tariffs, warning Mr. Trump on Tuesday that they were almost uniformly opposed to his plans to tax Mexican imports.

Several big states would be hit hard by the proposed tariffs on Mexican products, including Texas, Michigan, California, Illinois and Ohio, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re holding a gun to our own heads,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

Officials at Customs and Border Protection were making preparations on Wednesday to begin imposing the tariffs just after midnight on Monday morning.

In an interview, a Customs spokesman said the department was waiting for Mr. Trump to issue a presidential proclamation, which would then by followed by a Federal Register notice, outlining the basis for the tariffs and the universe of Mexican products to which they would apply. But even without a formal order establishing the tariffs, Customers workers are already building up the informational technology infrastructure needed to apply the tariffs on Monday morning to importers bringing in goods from Mexico.

Officials said they were readying technical guidance for importers, to help them properly fill out paperwork and pay the appropriate tariff — and preparing to assist those importers who have grown accustomed to paying no tariffs under the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

They also said administration officials are still discussing whether there will be exemptions for certain industries from the tariffs, and whether there will be a formal process for American companies to apply for tariff exclusions for certain products they import, as was the case with steel and aluminum tariffs and some tariffs on products from China.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/us/politics/mexico-tariffs.html

2019-06-05 17:03:45Z
52780309231204