MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico will invoke labor provisions in the new North American trade pact in a bid to ensure that illegal migrants in the United States receive coronavirus vaccines, the country’s top diplomat said Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters at a regular government news conference that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s labor provisions include health protections for migrants regardless of their immigration status.
He said the Mexican government will seek to use the provisions to ensure that migrants receive coronavirus vaccines.
Mexico responded with concern last week after the governor of the U.S. state of Nebraska said undocumented migrants would likely not get vaccinated due to immigration status.
The governor, Pete Ricketts, later appeared to partialy backtrack, saying citizenship would not be checked prior to vaccination.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
