Thread: Mexico's top diplomat to visit immigrant-friendly California

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE AND AMY TAXIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sep 10, 2017, 4:13 PM ET

Mexico's top diplomat will make a two-day visit to immigrant-friendly California amid strained relations between his country and the U.S. over President Donald Trump's border wall and immigration and trade proposals.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray is expected to meet Monday with Gov. Jerry Brown and state legislative leaders in California's capital. He will later head to Los Angeles to announce support for young immigrants whose protection from deportation is being terminated by Trump and meet with business and community leaders. He also plans a trip to Washington later in the week, officials at the Los Angeles consulate said.

The trip comes at a critical time in relations between the two countries. In the last few weeks, Trump has stepped up efforts to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and moved to end the program that let roughly 800,000 immigrants — three-quarters of them Mexican — work in the country even though they lack immigration status.

It also comes as negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, demanded by Trump, got off to a rocky start.

The trip aims to awaken Mexico's so-called natural allies and send a message to Washington that the countries ought to work together, said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

"It is complicated to have a strong relationship with the White House because of who is there, so now Mexico is playing the Washington game and the Washington game is very decentralized," he said. "He is coming, I would say, to friendly ground in which his message is going to be well-received."

Mexico and the United States share a long border and extensive ties. But the relationship has faced new challenges since the election of Trump, who referred to Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists during his campaign and has taken a series of measures to boost immigration enforcement.

California has pushed back against Trump's efforts to enlist local law enforcement to carry out his immigration plans. The state is home to 10 million foreign-born residents, about 4 million from Mexico.

On Monday, Videgaray will meet with some of the immigrants currently protected under the program that Trump is rescinding. The Obama administration began the program in 2012 to let immigrants brought to the country as children work even though they don't have legal status here.

He will also discuss ways the Mexican government can support these immigrants. The country last week lamented Trump's decision to yank the program and announced plans to create a special job bank for those affected and support their education.

Videgaray met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in late August, just days before Trump announced his decision on the program.

Mexico and the United States recently participated in a second round of NAFTA renegotiations along with Canada. Trump has said he could withdraw the United States from the 23-year-old pact, and Mexico said it won't stay at the table if it doesn't get a fair deal. The talk has raised concerns among businesspeople on both sides of the border.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ornia-49745821

They can support "those illegal immigrants" by bringing along a blueprint of a Comprehensive Plan for Reform and how THEY will absorb THEIR citizens back into THEIR country.

Give them a path to working, opening businesses and placing them in your schools. Put them to work building new villages...they have a lot of land and resources!

Take this opportunity to do the right thing by YOUR people. Give them hope and a path forward to contribute to their countries future.

"The trip aims to awaken Mexico's so-called natural allies and send a message to Washington that the countries ought to work together, said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego."


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We ought to work together? It has been nothing but a one-way street for Mexico to exploit their citizens, their children, not provide for them or put them on a path to success, then dump them over our border on the backs of US taxpayers and refuse to take them back...then they have the nerve to come to our soil into our government offices and ignore all these facts?

These people have absolutely no integrity and no shame.

Jerry Brown needs to be voted out and all these Governor's and Mayor's selling out American citizens.

by ASSEMBLYMAN TIM DONNELLY
11 Sep 2017
Sacramento, CA
723 comments

Mexico is sending a top cabinet-level diplomat to illegal alien-friendly California to help Mexican citizens living in the U.S. illegally avoid deportation in a post-DACA environment.

President Trump’s efforts to enforce immigration law and build a wall along the border have galvanized the Mexican government into action, and according to an Associated Press story, its top priority is to protect Mexican citizens living in the United States.

First stop, California, the center of anti-Trump resistance:

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray is expected to meet Monday with Gov. Jerry Brown and state legislative leaders in California’s capital. He will later head to Los Angeles to announce support for young immigrants whose protection from deportation is being terminated by Trump and meet with business and community leaders. He also plans a trip to Washington later in the week, officials at the Los Angeles consulate said.

…

On Monday, Videgaray will meet with some of the [illegal aliens] currently protected under the program that Trump is rescinding. The Obama administration began the program in 2012 to let [illegal aliens] brought to the country as children work even though they don’t have legal status here.

He will also discuss ways the Mexican government can support these [illegal aliens]. The country last week lamented Trump’s decision to yank the program and announced plans to create a special job bank for those affected and support their education.

Despite acknowledging that DACA is an internal domestic issue for the U.S., Mexico has promised to lobby Congress for passage of a DACA-like bill, while handing out legal assistance to all DACA recipients who wish to remain in the U.S.

In an interview with The Hill, Mexican Ambassador Gerónimo Gutiérrez says that he believes U.S.-Mexican relations are improving, and hints that with the public relations campaign he is waging, the wall is unlikely to ever be built, and if it is, that Mexico would never agree to pay for it. “One for us is clearly the issue of the wall, or paying for the wall. But once those red lines are clear, we understand better each other’s priorities, we do try to find common ground.”

Gutiérrez failed to mention that money sent back to Mexico by its citizens living in the U.S. (both legally and illegally), also known as “remittances,” is a huge boost to Mexico’s economy. Remittances to Mexico topped $28 billion in 2016, even surpassing oil revenues to the country, according to an NPR report.

The last time a top Mexican official came to California to meet with and lobby the legislature was when Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto visited in 2014. He was met by a large crowd of Americans demanding the release of American Marine Sargent Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican jail, where he had been held after accidentally crossing the border with guns in his vehicle.

http://www.breitbart.com/california/...d-deportation/

"while handing out legal assistance to all DACA recipients who wish to remain in the U.S."


WHAT??

Why are we concerned about the "wishes" of criminal illegal alien trespassers! This is ridiculous!

Go wish upon a star on your soil.

The nerve to come here and petition for us to keep YOUR people...disgusting!

They really got some big huevos coming here and we are letting them.

Isn't it odd the news media isn't screaming about this obvious interference? Well, wrong, but not odd these days.

For that matter, why is the President not telling them to keep hands off. It would seem trying to thwart the enforcement of our laws, is an act of aggression.

Unlike the ethereal benefit for Russia in our elections, Mexico has an obvious benefit from doing this.