of troops plus going after the people traffickers. we have to know what this is about, and that is the president trying to stem the tide of illegal immigration here. this week we learned agents apprehended over 144,000 more migrants at the u.s./mexico border last month, 132,000 illegally, the highest number in over a decade. why has that number spiked? has mexico evolved at all to this point? are you there? can you hear me still, sir? jorge, i think maybe we lost a connection there. and if so, i m very sorry. i had a few more questions to ask him. perhaps we will get him back and do that. meantime coming up democratic presidential candidate mar yan williamson will join me and talk about making it to the debate stage. and we also have this news to share. breaking news on the death of hillary clinton s youngest brother tony rodham.
welcome, sir. how is this affecting the relationship there now? i think since our new president took office in december, alex, he made a point of not having any confrontation to president trump, not paying attention to his tweets, tirades, diatribes or insults or anything he does. just sort of looking the other way and trying to avoid any kind of confrontation. this became very difficult now with the threat to impose tariffs, slap tariffs on mexican exports to the u.s. the good thing is the tariffs didn t happen. it was just a threat, little bit of bluff by the trump, but this time mexico was forced to make very serious concessions to president trump and that means that policy of looking the other way or turning the other cheek is not being very successful. with this agreement, as you know, mexico will be deploying its national guard troops
allowing trump to return immigrants to mexico while they wait for their asylum claims to be decided. in a new statement today speaker pelosi said she s deeply disappointed by the remain in mexico policy that vmiolates th rights of asylum seekers and fails to address the root cause of american migration, adding temper tantrums and threats are no way to negotiate foreign policy. crucial battleground 2020 states would be hit the hardest by the tariffs on mex kico and e of those congressman is touting him as a brilliant negotiator. but others feel differently. the farmers are breathing a big sigh of relief. not only are we facing repercussions as from trade deals and tariffs but as you have seen we have weather events
centers and how people are not being traded humane being treated humanely and this is a great concern not only for me but members of congress. which is why we need members of congress to go in and see the conditions there and continue to hold this administration accountable. alex, there s one other thing i want to point out, the one other thing i want to point out about this alleged deal that was struck with mexico, which is an expansion of the remain in mexico policy, that s devastating. what this does is it puts migrants in danger. they re sending pregnant women to dangerous parts of mexico where even american citizens are told to reconsider travel and not to go there because of the danger of kidnappings, because of the danger of the crime. this is where we re asking people to go wait for their asylum to be heard. i think it s illegal and it s continuing to be more and more of this president doing whatever he wants and that s happening.
rinle, happens to be an ally of president and senior most openly day official in the entire trump administration. his embassy asked to fly the flag. they were told they couldn t, and renal said he with fly it elsewhere and march in pride festivities in germany. but no dice, the embassy disallowing the flags at embassies around the world. joining me now abigail tracy from vanity fair and chief correspondent writer from the new york times. welcome to you both. what do you know about how this deal with mexican tariffs came about? and do you think it s a fair deal what you know so far? i guess it s your perspective, u.s. versus mexican perspective, or did the white house have to concede more than it hoped to? i think as we see here president trump s approach to free throw that are difficult. he makes a threat, sets a deadline and then cuts a deal before the deadline and said he got what he wanted. the trick is when you look at