Mexicans don’t much care for Donald Trump. In fact, they don’t like him at all.
But neither do they care for the Central American illegal aliens who are overrunning their country in a bid for the U.S. border, a poll from the Washington Post and the country’s Reforma newspaper says.
Growing anger about the continued migration from Central America suggests that the ultimatum that President Trump gave to Mexico — either stop the migrant invasion crossing your southern border, or face tariffs of up to 25 percent — might well push Mexican officials to deport the Central American illegals and shut down the flow’s fountainhead, the country’s southern border with Guatemala.
Six in 10 Say No!
“Mexicans,” the Post reported, “are deeply frustrated with immigrants after a year of heightened migration from Central America through the country.”
Sixty percent say the migrants, who have been heading north for nearly a year, “are a burden on their country because they take jobs and benefits that should belong to Mexicans.”
And a “55 percent majority supports deporting migrants who travel through Mexico to reach the United States.”
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Importantly, those data, the Post reported, belie the idea that Mexicans are on the side of border anarchy:
Those findings defy the perception that Mexico — a country that has sent millions of its own migrants to the United States, sending billions of dollars in remittances — is sympathetic to the surge of Central Americans. Instead, the data suggests Mexicans have turned against the migrants transiting through their own country, expressing antipathy that would be familiar to many supporters of President Trump north of the border.
The two newspapers polled 1,200 Mexican adults, who have been watching “migrants” from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador trespass then trash their country, and otherwise become a public nuisance.
They have been “sleeping in small-town plazas and relying on donations of food and clothes,” the Post reported, and overwhelmed cities such as Tijuana, where the invaders clashed with Mexicans who didn’t want them establishing squatter’s rights.
Comments from Mexicans online showed just how fed-up the natives are with the illegals, and Tijuana’s mayor took to wearing a “Make Tijuana Great Again” hat.
Thus do another 51 percent of those polled “support using the country’s newly formed national guard to combat migration of undocumented immigrants in Mexico,” and 59 percent favor the agreement to get tough on the illegals or face the tariffs.
Still, the Post reported, not all is well for some Mexicans:
The most vocal critique of the deal is that it has forced Mexican cities to contend with a growing pool of asylum seekers. In some northern cities, rumors have spread that African migrants are carrying Ebola. In others, officials say they’ve simply run out of places for migrants to stay.
Last week, for example, the governors of three northern Mexican states, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, signed a statement saying that they could not accept any more migrants. They blamed López Obrador’s administration for allowing so many asylum seekers to wait along Mexico’s northern border without offering more resources to the region.
Mexico, the Post reported, “expects to receive 60,000 asylum seekers who are forced by the United States to wait for their hearings on Mexican soil. [President Andrés Manuel] López Obrador has said those migrants will be given work permits, but it remains unclear who will provide their shelter or food. Many are likely to spend months in Mexico before they are granted or denied asylum in the United States.”
In other words, Mexico must deport the illegals, then seal its border with Guatemala.
Despite their dislike of illegals, Mexicans dislike The Donald even more: 77 percent of those polled think he’s “bad.”
Latest Numbers
Already, however, the deal Trump struck with Mexico might be working.
Bloomberg News has reported that Mexico apprehended 29,153 illegals in June, a 200-percent increase over June 2018, and a 23-percent increase from May this year. Deportations jumped 183 percent over June 2018 to 21,912, a 33-percent boost from May.
Border agents collared 104,344 illegals in June, down 27.7 percent from 144,278 they caught in May, and down 4.7 percent from the 109,462 in April. That figure still exceeds the number who crossed in March.
As of June 30, more than 780,000 illegals had crossed the border. By now, the number has likely surpassed 800,000 if they are crossing at the same rate, nearly 3,500 daily.
Photo: AP Images
