Human Trafficking: Mexico rescues 45,000 migrants

Mexico said Wednesday it has rescued more than 45,000 undocumented migrants from human traffickers since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office last December.

The foreign ministry said Mexican authorities rescued 46,616 migrants from people smugglers between December 1 -- when Lopez Obrador took office -- and August 11.

More than 19,000 of those migrants have been found in the past two months, it said.

That period coincides with a Mexican crackdown on undocumented migration toward the United States, under a deal to avert tariffs that President Donald Trump had threatened to impose if Mexico did not do more to stem a recent surge of Central Americans arriving in the US.

Critics of the deal say Mexico’s new anti-migration measures -- including the deployment of 21,000 National Guardsmen to tighten its borders -- will push more migrants to resort to human traffickers.