Trump attacks ‘weak’ Mark Esper after ‘missiles into Mexico’ memoir claim

Ex-president has ‘no comment’ on whether he wanted to fire missiles at Mexico, choosing instead to chide former defense chief

Date: May 9th, 2022

Source: The Guardian

Given a chance to address whether he contemplated firing missiles at Mexico, as his ex-defense secretary writes in a new memoir, Donald Trump avoided the issue, instead attacking his former cabinet member as “weak and ineffective.”

Trump, in a written statement to CBS’s 60 Minutes, said he had “no comment” when asked whether he ever asked ex-defense secretary Mark Esper about sending “missiles into Mexico” to destroy drug cartel labs in the country, which Esper claimed in a memoir published this week.

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Latinos should not vote for U.S. politicians who ‘mistreated’ them, Mexico president says

MEXICO CITY, April 25 (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday urged Latinos in the United States not to vote in November’s midterm elections for politicians who have “mistreated” them, in response to a comment by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Date: April 25th, 2022

Source: Reuters

Trump boasted at a rally in Ohio at the weekend that while in office, he had forced Lopez Obrador to deploy 28,000 soldiers along the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out migrants after threatening to slap tariffs on Mexican goods.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Lopez Obrador said no U.S. political party should “use Mexico as a pinata” and that those with the right to vote should exercise it carefully.

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US unwinds Trump policy making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico

02/19/2021

Source: PBS

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration moved to restore the asylum system to the way it worked for decades Friday by releasing a group of asylum-seekers into the United States, ending their long wait in Mexico and unraveling one of former President Donald Trump’s signature immigration policies.

The 25 people who arrived are the first of an estimated 25,000 asylum-seekers with active cases in the “Remain in Mexico” program who will now wait in the U.S. for their court hearings instead of south of the border. Wary of a surge of migrants, American officials are warning people not to come to the border and to register on a website that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees launched Friday.

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Facebook Ban on Trump Is ‘Holy Inquisition,’ Mexico’s AMLO Says

01/08/2021

Source: Bloomberg

The move by Internet giants Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. to suspend President Donald Trump’s access to social media accounts is a “bad omen,” according to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Having private companies decide who can be silenced and censored goes against freedom of speech, Lopez Obrador said on Friday during his daily press briefing.

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Over 1,300 asylum-seekers assaulted in Mexico while remaining there under Trump administration policy, new report says

12/16/2020

Source: Business Insider

More than 1,300 people have been raped, kidnapped, or otherwise assaulted since February 2019, when the Trump administration began requiring asylum-seekers to wait out their claims in Mexico, according to a new report.

“Continuing to turn away and expel people seeking US refugee protection at the southern border is both a humanitarian disgrace and a legal travesty,” Kennji Kizuka, a researcher at Human Rights First, which put out the study, said Wednesday. “The Trump administration is flouting US laws and treaty obligations to protect refugees, and weaponizing the pandemic to block and expel people seeking safety in the United States.”

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Trump or Biden? Mexico eyes who could boost struggling economy

10/28/2020

Source: Al Jazeera

Mexico City, Mexico – Five years ago, Donald Trump kicked off his first presidential campaign by saying that Mexico was sending crime, drugs and rapists to the United States. He thrust the US’s southern neighbour into the electoral spotlight and kept it there, making his infamous promise to build a border wall paid for by Mexico a cornerstone of his campaign.

Outrage roiled in Mexico then: pinata stores routinely stocked a Trump model so that Mexicans could buy it and give it a beating. There were comedy plays railing against him, an anti-Trump video game created by Mexican designers and even an ass dressed as Donald for the country’s annual donkey festival. All of that counted for nothing, because candidate Trump became President Trump and continued a fractious relationship with Mexico’s then-President Enrique Pena Nieto.

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Mexican president vows to pay US water debt, thanks Trump

09/17/2020

Source: AP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president vowed Thursday to repay the country’s water debt to the United States, even if it means asking farmers in Mexican states along the U.S. border to pitch in.

Time is running out for Mexico to pay the debt by the Oct. 24 deadline, especially after protesters seized a dam in Chihuahua state to stop water transfers.

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Former U.S. Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne reflects on AMLO’s meeting with Trump and Latin America

09/04/2020

Source: Al Día

Earl Anthony Wayne was attracted to the foreign service from a young age when he became fascinated with other countries, particularly how their culture and history was different from his own.

He began to ponder the tough questions, like how countries fall into certain styles of government. What steps led to the adoption of a democracy, communism or a dictatorship?

The California native took his desire to learn about all the corners of the world and how they can work together to his years in higher education.

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US, Mexico Widen Asylum Crackdown to Push Back All Migrants

8/28/19 – AP News

By María Verza and Nomaan Merchant

A Trump administration program forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico has evolved into a sweeping rejection of all forms of migrants, with both countries quietly working to keep people out of the U.S. despite threats to the migrants’ safety.

The results serve the goals of both governments, which have targeted unauthorized migration at the behest of President Donald Trump, who threatened Mexico with potentially crippling tariffs earlier this year to force action.

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Confusion, fear spread on Mexico border with new US policy

7/17/19 – AP News

By María Verza

Asylum-seekers gathered in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Texas, grappled to understand what a new U.S. policy that all but eliminates refugee claims by Central Americans and many others meant for their bids to find a better life in America amid a chaos of rumors, confusion and fear.

The policy went into effect Tuesday and represents the most forceful attempt to date by President Donald Trump to slash the number of people seeking asylum in the United States. It denies asylum to anyone who shows up on the U.S. border after traveling through another country, something Central American migrants have to do.

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