The Latest: Cabinet member suggests Trump is negotiating

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's comments about MS-13 gang members and immigration(all times local):

8:15 a.m.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggests President Donald Trump's Thursday threat to remove immigration officers from California is merely a negotiating tactic.

"The President is a first-rate negotiator," he tells Fox & Friends, "and I will suggest to you that that is what is going on."

Perry says Trump is "clearly" sending messages not just to California, "but also to Congress," with his thread to pull the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency out of California to protest so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions, which the administration claims are a magnet for immigrants who commit crimes.

Trump said Thursday his administration is making strides against the MS-13 gang but has been "getting no help from the state of California."

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7:23 a.m.

President Donald Trump is calling on Mexico to block MS-13 gang members from traveling through their country on the way to the U.S.

Trump tweets that gang members are being removed "by the thousands" by federal law enforcement agents, "but these killers come back in from El Salvador, and through Mexico, like water."

Trump accuses El Salvador of just paying lip service to combatting the violent international gang based there, and says Mexico "must help MORE with this problem." He adds: "We need The Wall!"

The Friday morning tweet comes a day after Trump suggested he may pull the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency out of California as punishment for so-called "sanctuary cities" in the state. The threat was dismissed as bluster by even some of Trump's staunchest supporters.