Baghdad-INA
The Mexican President described US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s project to build a wall on the border with Mexico as “fake”, reiterating his view that only major changes in US foreign policy will stop illegal immigration.
Asked on CBS’ 60 Minutes whether Trump would build the promised wall if elected in November, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador replied, “No. That’s not working!”, calling instead for reform of US foreign policy in order to reduce… From illegal immigration.
When Trump was in power and sought to build a wall, the Mexican president stated that he explained to his American counterpart that smugglers had managed to dig tunnels under the barriers that were already in place. He continued that Trump “remained silent and then started laughing and told me: With you, I cannot win.”
It is expected that US President Joe Biden will face Trump again in the presidential elections in November, with the issue of illegal immigration once again being at the center of the campaign.
Trump and his Republican Party criticized Biden against the backdrop of a record number of migrants crossing the southern border of the United States.
Lopez Obrador said that at the beginning of the year, at Biden’s request, he helped push for a temporary reduction in the number of illegal immigrants trying to enter the United States.
He pointed out that this decrease was achieved by Mexico being “more alert” to its southern borders and with the help of Central American leaders.
“But this is a short-term solution, not a long-term solution,” he added, stressing that Mexico wants to “address the root causes” of illegal immigration.
For the Mexican president, Washington should spend billions of dollars every year to reduce poverty in Latin America, ease sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba, and grant legal status to millions of Mexicans living in the United States.
He said that “the flow of migrants… will continue” if these radical reforms are not achieved.
2024-03-26 03:13:32