Mexico Won't Have Confrontation With US Over Border - President

Late March, US President Donald Trump said he might close the US-Mexico border, claiming that the neighbouring country was doing nothing to stop the flow of migrants.

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday that his state must be prudent and be a good neighbour of the United States adding that it was important to regulate the flow of illegal migrants.

"I prefer love and peace," Lopez Obrador said during his regular morning news conference.

READ MORE: Mexico Prepares to Receive 'Mother of Caravans' of 20,000 Migrants Heading to US

The Mexican leader's remarks follow Trump's announcement made on 29 March that he will likely close the southern border the upcoming week if Mexico does not introduce any measures to stop the flow of illegal migrants into the United States.

In an attempt to tackle illegal migration, Trump declared a national emergency in February after his demands to Congress for $8 billion in federal funding to construct a wall on the US southern border. According to the US president, the wall is needed to prevent criminals and terrorists from pouring into the US. The Congress, for its part, opposed the plan.

Meanwhile, thousands of asylum seekers crossed the US-Mexican border over the last year and early 2019 — this forced US officials to deploy troops to the southern frontier. The most recent wave of caravans with around 1,200 people set off toward the United States in March.