The government of Mexico and a number of Latino leaders wasted no time in lashing out against billionaire Donald Trump's accusation that Mexico is sending drugs, criminals and rapists to the U.S. and his promise to build a "great, great wall" on the U.S.-Mexico border. After Trump entered the Presidential race on Tuesday with a 45-minute kick-off at the Trump Tower in New York City, Mexico's Minister of Government Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong called his diatribe against Mexico "biased and absurd."
Osorio Chong, who is in charge of Mexico's internal security, said that the real estate billionaire ignores the contributions of immigrants to the U.S. "There is no doubt that the men and women of Mexico who are [living] in the U.S.… help the development of the U.S.," Osorio Chong said, according to media reports. He added that Trump is trying to get media attention.
Trump's wild accusations were also lambasted by a number of Latinos in the U.S. "It appears Mr. Trump is having a difficult time separating fact from fiction. Developing a sound foreign policy with the United States’ most important trade partner and neighbor is not a reality TV show," Arturo Vargas, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), said via email. Trump hosts the NBC reality show "The Apprentice."
Pablo Manriquez, Hispanic Media Director of the Democratic National Committee, told me that “Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant saber rattling is nothing new. In fact, it’s just the same old Latino outreach playbook the GOP turns to every election, just with less packaging and finish."
Trump’s "utter disrespect for Mexicans and immigrants" is not unique in the Republican field, Manriquez insisted. "Sadly, it’s just an unvarnished look at their anti-immigrant policies," he said, referring to several other want-to-be Republican candidates who have attacked Mexico and immigrants with similar enmity.
"You’d think the GOP would have learned by now," Manriquez opined.
In his speech, which received wide media coverage both in the U.S. and abroad, Trump promised that if he is elected president he will build a wall along the southern border and that Mexico would pay for it. "I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words," Trump said.
Trump also accused Mexico of sending "not the right people" to the U.S. “[Mexico] are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and their rapists,” he said.
“The US has become a dumping ground for everyone else’s problems,” Trump added.
Is not the first time Trump has expressed his dislike for Mexico. In February, he criticized the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for awarding several Oscars, including Best Picture, to Birdman's director Alejandro Iñárritu, a Mexican citizen, who he accused of "walking away with all the gold." Then in March, Trump pledged in his Twitter account that Mexico will never host the Miss Universe pageant, which he co-owns with NBC.
Trump has expressed a desire to run for president since the 1980s, but Tuesday's announcement is the first time he has actually made it official. He is considered to have a scant chance of winning the Republican nomination. However, out of sixteen Republicans who have entered or are expected to enter the race, four are currently less popular than him, according to a combination of polls tracked regularly by the Huffington Post.
Immigration, and by extension Mexico, the country that accounts for nearly 6 million of the 11.2 unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. according to the Pew Research Center, has become a polarizing issue for the 2016 presidential campaigns because of the Latino vote, which is seen as key to winning the White House.
With a net worth estimated at $4.1 billion, Trump is currently ranked #431 richest person in the world, according to Forbes real-time billionaire ranking.
Twitter: @DoliaEstevez
