President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that he would send a letter to former United States president Donald Trump about migration and the importance of economic integration in North America, after Trump gave a fiery anti-migrant speech at the U.S. Republican National Convention.
“I’m going to send a letter … to my friend Donald Trump because I think they’re not informing him well about the migration issue and also about the importance of maintaining economic integration between the United States, Mexico and Canada,” AMLO told reporters at his morning press conference, in response to the U.S. presidential candidate’s speech.
His remarks came after Trump told attendees at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that he intended to close the United States’ southern border with Mexico on “Day 1” if elected to a second term as U.S. president.
López Obrador said he would “prove” to Trump that migrants aren’t smuggling drugs into the United States.
“This is a despicable lie,” he said. “Migrants go to the United States to work, honorably.”
López Obrador also said he would remind Trump that the United States “was established and became a power thanks to migrants from all over the world.”
“They arrived and made a very prosperous country. This must be made clear,” he said.
AMLO, who maintained a cordial relationship with Trump during his 2017-21 presidency, said he would also inform the Republican Party presidential candidate that “economic integration helps us, and nothing is resolved by closing the border” between Mexico and the United States, which are each other’s largest trade partner.
“What’s more, [the border] cannot and must not [be closed],” he said.
The border — across which almost US $2 billion worth of goods are transported every day — “would not bear being closed for one month!” López Obrador said.
“They wouldn’t put up with it. Not the farmers, not the manufacturers, not the investors in the United States, not the workers in the United States,” AMLO said.
“It would affect us as well, but it would affect them more,” he said.
As Trump is “an intelligent man with vision,” López Obrador continued, “I know he will change his way of thinking.”
After once again lamenting the assassination attempt on Trump last Saturday and claiming he was the first world leader to condemn the attack, AMLO said he would send his letter to the Republican party candidate next week.
“It’s not about fighting, it’s about speaking the truth and having knowledge of reality,” he said.
Earlier this week, López Obrador said that gun control is urgently needed in the United States, and suggested that U.S. President Joe Biden and former president Trump should both pledge to impose greater regulations on the sale of firearms.
Smugglers move large numbers of guns from the United States into Mexico, where they often end up in the hands of criminal organizations that send illicit drugs and migrants north.
United States government data released this week indicated a significant decline in the number of migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. via Mexico since Biden implemented a new border policy in early June, but illegal immigration is still set to be a major issue in the U.S. presidential election.
What did Trump say about Mexico during his nomination acceptance speech?
Just five days after his right ear was grazed by a bullet shot by a 20-year-old gunman as he spoke at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump formally accepted the presidential nomination of the Republican Party.
During a lengthy nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, the 45th U.S. president made a number of implicit and explicit references to Mexico. Below is a selection of those remarks.
On migrants entering the United States via the border with Mexico
“We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it’s taking place right now, as we sit here in this beautiful arena. It’s a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease, and destruction to communities all across our land. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
On his plan to end the immigration “crisis”
“I will end the illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I’ve already built.”
“… At the heart of the Republican platform is our pledge to end this border nightmare, and fully restore the sacred and sovereign borders of the United States of America. And we’re going to do that on Day 1. That means two things on Day 1, right? Drill, baby, drill and close our borders.”
On the USMCA trade pact
“I got rid of NAFTA the worst trade deal ever made and replaced it with USMCA, which is, they say, the best trade deal ever made.”
On Chinese automakers’ (proposed) production of cars in Mexico
“Right now as we speak, large factories, just started, are being built across the border in Mexico. So, with all the other things happening at our border, and they’re being built by China to make cars and to sell them into our country, no tax, no anything. The United Autoworkers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately and every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing and we’re going to bring it back fast.”
* Chinese automakers including BYD and Solarever Electric Vehicles have announced plans to open plants in Mexico. But construction has not yet commenced on any of the announced plants.
Mexico News Daily
