Mexico has called a US proposal to extend walls along the US border unacceptable and is seeking the international community's support to block the measure.
Mexico raised the stakes in the battle against the bill, approved by the House of Representatives last week, by hiring a US public relations firm and encouraging a separate US lobbying campaign against it.
"Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall," Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said on Tuesday.
He added the government will do "whatever is needed" to stop the bill, which would also criminalize undocumented migrants. He has already received some support from the international community.
"What has to be done is to raise a storm of criticism, as is already happening, against this," he said.
Amnesty International's Mexico office said in statement that a border wall would be "a historic setback for human rights" and "will multiply the loss of life" by making crossing the border even more dangerous.
There are an estimated 10 million Mexican citizens living in the US. Authorities believe that about half of them do not have papers.
Last year, Mexican migrants north of the Rio Grande sent home more than US$16 billion in remittences, according to Mexico's central bank, giving the nation its second biggest source of foreign currency after oil exports.
Mexico is also encouraging US church, community and business groups to oppose the US proposal, and has hired Allyn & Company, a Dallas-based public relations company, to help improve the country's image and stem the immigration backlash.
"If people in the US and Canada had an accurate view of the success of democracy, political stability and economic prosperity in Mexico, it would improve their views on specific bilateral issues like immigration and border security," Rob Allyn, president of the firm, said on Tuesday.
The government is also pledging to fight abuse of migrants living in the US, and last week started airing a series of radio spots aimed at Mexicans returning home for the holidays.
"Had a labor accident in the United States? You have rights ... call," states the ad, sponsored by Mexico's Foreign Relations Department. The department, which helps migrants seek labor compensation in the US, denied the campaign is linked to the US measures.
Those measures would also enlist military and local law enforcement to help stop illegal entrants.
It's hard to underestimate the ill-feeling the proposals, which include building 1,100km of border walls, have generated in Mexico.
Fernando Robledo, 42, a former migrant worker from the western state of Zacatecas, said the proposals could disrupt families by making immigration harder.
"When people heard this, it worried everybody, because this will affect everybody in some way, and their families," Robledo said.
"They were incredulous. How could they do this, propose something like this?" he asked.
Like many Mexicans, he expressed a sense of betrayal and rejection.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a