Visibly angered by President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the US-Mexican border and force Mexico to pay the federal government back for it, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has ordered his country’s consulates in the United States to offer assistance to illegal immigrants fighting deportation orders.
Migrants at risk
In a statement on the Mexican government’s official website, Nieto said: “Where there is a Mexican migrant at risk, there we must be, there must be your country.” Nieto said he had ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “become authentic advocates for the rights of immigrants.” There are 50 Mexican consulates in the United States, according to Nieto.
Of those, 10 are located in California, where large numbers of illegal immigrants reside. The consulates are located at Calexico, Fresno, Los Angeles, Oxnard, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Ana.
Executive order
On Wednesday, President Trump issued an executive order to mandate “the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border, monitored and supported by adequate personnel so as to prevent illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and acts of terrorism.”
Narcotics, firearms, terrorism
The US president said that transnational criminal organizations use the border to smuggle narcotics and firearms into the United States, leading to increases in domestic criminal behavior and deaths from the intake of drugs.
“Aliens who illegally enter the United States without inspection or admission present a significant threat to national security and public safety,” Trump wrote in the executive order. “Such aliens have not been identified or inspected by federal immigration officers to determine their admissibility to the United States.” The wall is necessary, Trump wrote, because immigration officials are overwhelmed by massive crossings of the border.
Mexico won’t pay
I regret and reject the decision of the United States to continue the construction of a wall that, for years, far from uniting us, divides us. Mexico does not believe in the walls. I have said it over and over again: Mexico will not pay for any wall,” the Mexican President said in a video statement posted on Twitter.
The Mexican president also cancelled a trip to the United States to discuss immigration, trade, and other issues with Trump.
Mexico taking advantage
On Friday, Trump reiterated his decision to get tough on immigration. In a Twitter message, the president wrote that “Mexico has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough. Massive trade deficits and little help on the very weak border must change, Now!”
