Saying President Donald Trump should stop playing politics at the U.S.-Mexico border, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said new Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador will test the adjacent countries' relationship.
"I think you're going to know a lot more in the next few days because a new president in Mexico is sworn in this weekend," Richardson, a Democrat, told "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "Will he be friendly towards the president or not?
"He is a populist. He has said he wants to protect the immigrants humanitarian-wise. But this will be the first test of the new U.S.-Mexico relationship."
Richardson is hopeful the new president's focus on the jobs and their economy can help slow the trend of migration through Central America, because President Trump is politicizing immigration.
"What's happened is these caravans have thousands of people massed at the border, causing problems with the Mexican population, too," Richardson told host John Catsimatidis. "I think the president uses the immigration issue politically, and I don't think you put tear gas on people. I don't think you separate children from their families. It has to be dealt with sensibly, and not just for politics sake.
"Maybe this new president of Mexico, with his plan to develop economics and jobs at the border, in Central America, Mexico, at the U.S. border, that will deter the flow of immigration coming into America. I think that's the sensible thing."
Richardson, an expert on North Korean foreign policy, did credit President Trump for a "better" situation on the Korean Peninsula.
"There are no missile shots; no nuclear weapons tests; South and North Korea are talking to each other; the secretary of state has been meeting with the North Koreans," Richardson said. "They're just very tough to negotiate with. I've done it in eight visits. You've got to watch them. You've got to make sure they comply. That they're accountable. That they do what they say they're going to do.
". . . Maybe a framework with an agreement will happen in the next few months."
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