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Daca deal off, US-Mexico border becoming more dangerous: Trump

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US President slams Democrats, Mexico's failure to stop illegal migration

WASHINGTON/IXTEPEC:, MEXICO President Donald Trump said that there will be no deal to legalise the status of young adult immigrants called Dreamers and he said the US-Mexico border is becoming more dangerous.

After tweeting a "Happy Easter" message, he said: "Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous.

"'Caravans' coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws now. No more Daca deal!" he wrote, adding a threat to kill the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) being renegotiated with Mexico and Canada.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) is a programme created in 2012 under Democratic former President Barack Obama that Mr Trump sought to rescind last autumn.

Designed for people brought to the US as children by parents who were undocumented immigrants, the programme shielded them from deportation and gave them work permits.

Mr Trump had said he was open to a deal with congressional Democrats who want to protect Daca in exchange for funding to build a US-Mexico border wall, a campaign trail promise.

Mexico's presidential front-runner, Mr Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, launched his campaign close to the border on Sunday, demanding respect for Mexicans.

Whether Mr Trump will stick to his guns on Daca is unclear.

Last month, he threatened to veto a spending bill because it did not address the fate of Dreamers and did not fully fund his border wall, but he ultimately signed the bill.

Mr Trump's Daca tweets came after a report on the Fox New Channel's Fox & Friends programme, one of his favourites, that a "caravan" of mostly Honduran migrants was crossing Mexico and headed to the US, "either illegally or by asking for asylum".

More than 1,000 would-be migrants have passed through Mexico's southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca in recent days in a so-called "refugee caravan" organised by US-based immigrant advocacy group Pueblo Sin Fronteras.

Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday that Mexico is doing "very little, if not nothing", to stop the flow of people across the southern border - REUTERS

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