The outlook for US-LAC relations

A central belief of the Trump presidency has been that it is necessary to reduce inward migration to the United States. During the 2016 election campaign, Trump accused Mexican migrants of being criminals, rapists, and drug traffickers, and vowed to keep them out of the US as a way of protecting US jobs. The background is that the US has experienced a significant increase in inward migration since the 1970s. The proportion of the population composed of immigrants rose from roughly 5% in 1970 to nearly 15% now. Inward migration from Mexico was initially dominant, but in the last two decades most migrants have come from elsewhere, from Asia, India, and China. The flow of immigrants coming from Latin America into the US has also become more diverse, including many originating from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. Net migration from Mexico has meanwhile turned negative (in other words, more US citizens are moving to Mexico than the other way round).