Would you expect a high-ranking United States government official to respond to a Mexican woman who took to social media to tell U.S. bureaucrats to stick her U.S. visa up their backsides?
That’s exactly what Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau did on Thursday.
Let’s back up a bit (pardon the pun).
Earlier this week, Melissa Cornejo, a member of the state council of the ruling Morena party in Jalisco, shared a photo to the X social media site of a man holding up a Mexican flag in front of a burnt-out vehicle in Los Angeles, where protests against immigration raids have been held in recent days.
Painted on the side of the car in capital letters was the message “FUCK ICE” — ICE being the acronym of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which carries out raids targeting undocumented immigrants.
Above the photo, Cornejo wrote: “They’re going to take away visas from those who share…”
She was apparently alluding to the possibility that she could be stripped of her U.S. visa for sharing a photo of a defiant protester. However, Cornejo made it clear she didn’t care about that (if in fact she actually has a U.S. tourist visa, that is).
“Viva la raza y metánse mi visa por el culo,” she wrote in her post, which is now only visible to approved followers, but which reportedly attracted thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.
Translation: “Long live Mexicans in the U.S. and stick my visa up your ass.”
If Cornejo was looking for a Trump administration official to take her bait, she got exactly what she wanted.
“I can’t stick your visa there, but I can inform you that I personally gave the order to cancel it after seeing this vulgar post,” Landau responded using his official deputy secretary of state X account.
“And it shouldn’t surprise you what they answered: that you don’t even have a valid visa to cancel,” he wrote.
“How easy it is to talk about your disdain for ‘my visa’ on social media when you don’t have one. Those who glorify violence and the defiance of legitimate authorities and public order (‘FU** ICE’) are in no way welcome in our country,” Landau wrote before signing off with his name and official title.
He reposted his original post to his personal account.
By mid-afternoon, the deputy secretary of state and former ambassador to Mexico had attracted a response from Denise Dresser, a well-known Mexican political scientist and writer.
“With all due respect, Ambassador Landau, this is conduct unbecoming of a U.S. government official,” she wrote.
Landau — who met with President Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico City on Wednesday — got a mixed reaction to his post from other X users, with comments including “that’s right Mr. Secretary”; “excellent response”; “fascist”; and “don’t you think it’s totally extremist to cancel a visa for expressing an opinion on social media?”
Mexico News Daily
