In response to the United States pleading for assistance in combatting the flow of illegal immigrants over the southern border, Mexico’s president issued a series of shocking demands on Friday, leading many to accuse him of using the border for “ransom.”
After the U.S. saw a record-breaking number of migrants at the southern border in November, including “migrant encounters at ports of entry and illegal immigrant encounters by Border Patrol between ports of entry, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas, the United States Homeland Security Secretary, met with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador about helping stop illegal immigration.
In response to their pleas, the Mexican president issues a series of inflammatory demands, including that the United States provide 10 million Hispanics who have been working in the U.S. for the past decade work visas. López Obrador also requested Americans “give $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries,” stop the embargo against Cuba, and end all oil and gas sanctions imposed on Venezuela.
Despite the Biden administration admitting President López Obrador’s demands to be ambitious, an official said in a statement that the United States shares the Mexican president’s “vision” about “uplifting” the region.
“López Obrador has a very ambitious agenda. For some of these things, we would need Congress to act,” the official stated.
In addition to Fox News pointing out that these demands come at a crucial time for U.S. President Joe Biden, “whose polling numbers on illegal immigration have been low throughout his presidency,” many took to X to express their disgust that the U.S. government would consider acquiescing to Mexico’s demands.
“Here’s the answer: NO,” wrote Valentina Gomez, Missouri’s Secretary of State. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
“Sounds like a ransom demand,” added another user.
Offering his own solution to the current migrant crisis, one X user who goes by the handle @TechLawExpert said:
“I have a better solution. Build the wall, enforce the law and deport,” he wrote. “Giving 20B to Mexico while not changing U.S. border policy and security is throwing good money after bad. Mexico is a failed corrupt state.”
Notably, this is not the first time President López Obrador has pushed back on immigration issues. According to Fox News, he bumped heads with Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the state’s legislation allowing law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants and offer them “the choice to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges for illegal entry.”
“The Texas governor acts that way because he wants to be the Republican vice presidential candidate and wants to win popularity with these measures,” said López Obrador. “He’s not going to win anything. On the contrary, he is going to lose support because there are a lot of Mexicans in Texas, a lot of migrants.”
Abbott hopes Senate Bill 4, which makes illegal immigration a crime in the state of Texas, will “stop a tidal wave of illegal immigration.”
