MEXICO CITY — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in Mexico on Friday to meet with President Claudia Sheinbaum and members of her Cabinet in a delicate moment in U.S.-Mexico relations.
Noem came to the Mexican capital on the final leg of a three-nation Latin American trip that included stops in Colombia and El Salvador.
It is Noem’s first official trip to a region that has drawn intense Trump administration scrutiny because of its connections to pivotal issues — immigration, drug trafficking and trade.
Noem and Sheinbaum and her team met for more than two hours at the National Palace, Mexican media reported, but no details were immediately available on what they discussed.
Noem’s three-nation swing, authorities said, focused on efforts to thwart illicit immigration, target transnational criminal groups and combat smuggling of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States.
Mexico is a production site for U.S.-bound fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin and other drugs. The nation is also a major major transit zone for South American cocaine destined for the voracious U.S. market.
Before meeting with Noem, Sheinbaum told reporters she would inform the U.S. security chief about the “coordination and collaboration” that her administration has embarked upon with Washington.
Sheinbaum has launched a security offensive that has seen the arrest of hundreds of suspected drug smugglers and producers, the takedowns of numerous clandestine labs, and record seizures of fentanyl and other drugs.
She has also dispatched more than two dozen alleged drug lords to the United States to face justice, bypassing regular extradition procedures, and dispatched 10,000 troops to Mexico’s northern border to help deter illegal immigration and smuggling.
While Trump has praised Sheinbaum’s efforts, bilateral relations between the two North American neighbors are enduring a tense time.
Sheinbaum is desperately seeking to head off Trump’s plans to impose punishing tariffs on Mexican imports to the United States. Mexico’s economy, mired in slow growth and lagging investor confidence, is heavily dependent on cross-border trade — and the United States receives more than 80% of its exports. Many forecaster say the tariffs could plunge Mexico into a recession.
Trump has said he intends next week to institute a 25% tariff on vehicles and auto parts imported from all countries, including Mexico. Sheinbaum is pushing for a broad exemption for all Mexican auto-sector imports under terms of United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free-trade pact that went into effect in 2020, during Trump’s first presidential term.
“This integration has existed for decades,” Sheinbaum said in her regular daily news conference before meeting with the U.S. homeland security chief. “It is evident that any tariff will affect this integration that we have and both economies. It affects the United States and it affects Mexico.”
Mexico’s booming auto-industry plants — producing vehicles, components and parts mostly for export to the United States — employ more than 1 million people. Experts say the availability of auto-industry jobs has been a key factor in dissuading many Mexicans from immigrating to the United States.
While migration was on the table in the Noem-Sheinbaum meeting, it is not clear if tariffs were discussed.
Another sensitive bilateral issue centers on the Trump administration’s decision to designate a half-dozen Mexican criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Mexico opposed the move, which many here view here as a prelude to a potential unilateral U.S. attack on cartel strongholds — an action that would be sure to spur a strong nationalist backlash in a country that has historically suffered multiple U.S. invasions, though none in more than a century.
Absent on Noem’s visit to Mexico was any public sighting of her $50,000 Rolex, an 18-karat gold watch that drew attention and criticism Wednesday while she toured a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
Inside the penitentiary, with a backdrop of heavily tattooed prisoners stacked behind bars, Noem went on X to deliver a warning.
“President Trump and I have a clear message to criminal illegal aliens: LEAVE NOW,” she wrote. “If you do not leave, we will hunt you down, arrest and, and you could end in this El Salvadorian prison.”
The Trump administration is facing a court challenge about its decision to invoke an 18th century law, previously only employed in wartime, to deport scores of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, where they were dispatched to the mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center.
Relatives of and attorneys for the expelled Venezuelans say U.S. authorities set aside due process and relied on flimsy evidence — including tattoos and social media posts — to designate the migrants as members of the Tren de Aragua gang and fly them to El Salvador.
In El Salvador, Noem dodged questions about whether Venezuelans would be able to leave the Salvadoran lockup or if they would be brought back to the United States, if a judge were to order their return.
“We’re going to let the courts play out,” Noem told reporters.
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.