(Reuters) — Thousands of Mexicans marched on Mexico City on Sunday (February 12) to denounce US President Donald Trump, condemning his plans to deport millions of migrants and make Mexico pay for a border wall along the US border with the Latin American country.
Just three weeks into his presidency, Trump has moved fast to start carrying out his plans to deport up millions of undocumented migrants.
He has vowed to move fast on construction which he claims its southern neighbour will pay for. The latter has been a sticking point for relations between the two countries. After Trump tweeted that a planned meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto need not go ahead without agreement on the topic, the Pena government cancelled the president’s Washington trip.
Activist Maria Amparo Cassar told media that Trump has turned Mexicans into a target with his anti-immigrant stance.
“Mr Trump has taken Mexico and the Mexican community in the United States as his preferred target for the policies that he has taken internationally, it is a threat to the global community. It should not be forgotten that American society was made by migrants and continues to be made by migrants and so these policies of Mr Trump’s run counter to these principles, against plurality.”
Trump is also expected to take swift action on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that underpins Mexico’s economy. The US President has accused Mexico of taking American manufacturing jobs and a plan to tax Mexican imports coming into the United States has been touted.
Activist Francisco Rivas said differences between the two neighbours should be resolved together.
“With the United States we need to resolve whatever difference we have because we will not be able to move the country forward so it is best to work together and to strengthen a relationship that is mutually beneficial. But the current government of the United States has declared it an enemy of Mexico,” he said.
Mexico has sought to reply diplomatically to Trump’s claims about the country. Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray has already visited Washington for preliminary talks and both leaders have said they will reschedule their cancelled meeting.
But for some Mexicans they want a firmer response against Trump.
Local writer, Hector Aguilar, compared said Mexican migrant communities in the United States are becoming ghettos out of fear of Trump’s policies.
“I say that he is insane. Mexicans have said no to all that he has done and we are against the wall and deportations and against all that he is doing to Mexicans over there, like they’re enemies. This is how it’s perceived here and there are families who have been very affected, children don’t want to go to school. It’s a ghetto-like environment,” said Aguilar.
More than three quarters of Mexicans have a bad or very bad opinion of the U.S. President, according to a recent poll of 600 people by Gabinete de Comunicacion Estrategica.