By Phil Stewart and Diego Oré
Washington/Mexico City (Reuters) -Mexico has rejected a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to allow a U.S. military plane to land migrants in the country, a U.S. official and a Mexican official told Reuters.
US military aircraft conducted two similar flights to Guatemala on Friday, each carrying about 80 migrants. The government was unable to move forward with a plan for a C-17 transport aircraft land in Mexico after the country rejected permission.
A U.S. official and a Mexican official confirmed the decision, which was first reported by NBC News.
In a statement late Friday, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said the country has a “very strong relationship” with the United States and cooperates on issues such as immigration.
“When it comes to repatriations, we will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms,” the ministry said.
The Mexican official gave no reason for denying permission to land, while the Foreign Ministry made no mention of the incident.
Trump’s administration announced earlier this week that it would launch the program known as “Rest in Mexico,” which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases were resolved in the United States.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that such a move would require the country to agree to asylum seekers and that Mexico had not done so.
The US State Department and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S.-Mexico relations have come into focus since Trump began his second term on Monday by declaring a national emergency along the two nations’ shared border. He has ordered 1,500 additional U.S. troops there so far, and officials have said thousands more could deploy soon.
The president has declared Mexican drug cartels terrorist organizations, renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and threatened a day off for 25% service on Mexican goods starting in February.
Sheinbaum has tried to escalate the situation and expressed openness to helping Mexican nationals be returned.
But the left-wing leader has also said she does not agree with mass deportations and that Mexican immigrants are crucial to the U.S. economy.
The use of US military aircraft to conduct deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on Monday.
In the past, U.S. military aircraft have been used to move individuals from one country to another, such as during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
This was the first time in recent memory that US military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the country, a US official said.
The Pentagon said the U.S. military is completing flights to more than 5,000 immigrants in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
Guatemala also received a third flight of about 80 deported migrants on a commercial merchant plane on Friday, Guatemala authorities told Reuters.
