Posts

Tijuana Mayor Denounces ‘Horde’ of Caravan Migrants

/0 Comments/in , /by

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum said Thursday that caravan migrants arriving by the hundreds are no longer welcome, an increasingly common sentiment among residents of the Mexican border city.

Gastelum described the caravan of Central American migrants as a “horde” that has been infiltrated by criminals who now threaten the community, in an interview with Milenio Television.

“Tijuana is a city of immigrants, but we don’t want them in this way,” the mayor, a member of the conservative National Action Party, said. “It was different with the Haitians, they carried papers, they were in order. It wasn’t a horde, pardon the expression.” . . .

The 4,000-strong caravan, a mix of families seeking asylum and economic migrants, continues to arrive in Tijuana after a journey of more than 2,500 miles from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border. Caravan organizers could have chosen a much shorter route to the border near the southern tip of Texas, but opted for Tijuana in part because the city had already hosted a similar group in April.

But the arrival of another caravan has frustrated local officials and residents who worry that the massive group of homeless Central Americans will be stuck in Tijuana indefinitely. U.S. border authorities are processing about 90 asylum seekers per day at the ports of entry near Tijuana, where there was a wait list of more than 3,000 people even before the caravan arrived. (Read more from “Tijuana Mayor Denounces ‘Horde’ of Caravan Migrants” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Central American Caravan Has Arrived at the Southern Border. Here’s Their Plan Moving Forward.

/0 Comments/in , /by

The caravan traveling from Central America to the United States has officially arrived at the United States-Mexico border in Tijuana, just south of San Diego, California, The New York Times reported. The illegal aliens on the caravan have survived the dangerous trek thus far but now they’re in for real trouble: figuring out how to get into the United States, especially now that the military was deployed.

President Donald Trump has promised to make it impossible for illegal aliens to seek asylum so caravan riders are considering their options. Some are setting up appointments with border patrol officials in hopes of pleading their case, others are contemplating staying in Mexico while another section will probably cross the border illegally. . .

According to César Anibal Palencia Chavez, Tijuana’s director of migrant services, 2,800 illegal aliens not associated with the group are currently waiting for asylum in the United States. They, too, are waiting in local shelters.

Chavez said Tijuana and Baja Mexico pleaded for the Mexican federal government to help the city with the influx of people – something they consider a “humanitarian crisis” – but they have not received a response.

“The federal government is not accompanying us,” he said. “It’s worrisome for a city to be left alone.” (Read more from “Central American Caravan Has Arrived at the Southern Border. Here’s Their Plan Moving Forward.” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Caravan Migrants Refuse Mexico’s Offer for Schooling, Jobs and Much More

/0 Comments/in , /by

Caravan migrants heading to the U.S. have refused Mexico’s offer to receive refugee status that would provide schooling, jobs, medical care and shelter. . .

The program gives refugee status to those who apply and provide migrants access to shelter, medical attention, schooling and temporary employment opportunities to Central American migrants in the Chiapas and Oaxaca states, according to The AP. . .

Those of working age would clean, repair and maintain infrastructure in the two southern Mexican states, according to the program. Migrants can also obtain Mexico’s version of a social security number called CURP (Clave Unica de Registro Publico). This will allow the migrants to have legal proof of identity, enter and leave shelters and open bank accounts.

The program came in response to the “unprecedented flow of people from Central American countries who have entered [into Mexico] the last few days,” according to the program’s press statement.

“The government of the Republic reiterates that the unrestricted commitment to the human rights or migrants does not mean an endorsement to irregular, massive and undocumented entry into Mexican territory, on the contrary it makes a new call to those who wish to enter Mexico, to avoid risks unnecessary and subject to the procedures that Mexican law establish,” a Ministry of the Interior press statement said. (Read more from “Caravan Migrants Refuse Mexico’s Offer for Schooling, Jobs and Much More” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Mexican Ambassador Makes a Stunning Accusation About Migrant Caravan

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The Mexican ambassador to the United States said that they had reason to believe that the migrant caravan from Honduras heading towards the U.S. border was not the result of a grassroots effort, but was “politically motivated.” . . .

“Mexico also issued a very clear statement saying if somebody is seeking asylum, Mexico is there along now with the U.N. to look at those claims, we want to make sure those claims are legitimate.” . . .

“We have evidence that this caravan is also very much politically motivated,” he claimed. . .

“But we have also made very clear that there’s no legal ground on which Mexico can issue a permit by which people can just go through Mexico towards the United States,” he concluded.

The caravan of migrants from Honduras began its long trek to the U.S. border on Saturday with about 1,000 participants. Reports say it has swelled to 4,000 migrants as it crossed from Honduras into Guatemala. (Read more from “Mexican Ambassador Makes a Stunning Accusation About Migrant Caravan” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

FAKE NEWS ALERT: Presidential Candidate From Mexico Did Not Advocate for a Migrant ‘Invasion’ to U.S.

/0 Comments/in , /by

Can you say, “Fake News”? An article has been making its way around social media claiming that the new Mexican presidential candidate has called for a mass migration to the United States. A “news site” by the name of wesupportDonaldTrump.com published the article and caused an uproar on Facebook. . .

The presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was not calling for a flood of illegal immigrants to cross the border to the U.S. His actual quote is translated as, “Soon, very soon, after the victory of our movement, we will defend all migrants all over the American continent. And the migrants of the world, who, by necessity, must abandon their towns to find life in the United States.” Lopez Obrador was simply mentioning that he would support those that found it necessary to cross the border in order to survive. His quote was taken wildly out of context. . .

On today’s episode of “The News and Why It Matters,” Pat Gray brought up this Facebook hoax. “He’s just saying that because of the way they live, that they need to cross the border for their families,” Pat said.

The other hosts — Stu Burguiere, Jason Buttrill, and Sara Gonzales — were confused with López Obrador’s logic. The candidate blatantly called migration to the United States “a human right we will defend.” Stu was especially annoyed with this reasoning. (Read more from “Fake News Alert: Presidential Candidate From Mexico Did Not Advocate for a Migrant ‘Invasion’ to U.S.” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Mexico’s New Leftist President Is Not a Threat, but the Collapse of Mexico Is

/0 Comments/in , /by

Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the Mexican presidency in a landslide election on Sunday. Obrador—or Amlo, as he’s commonly called—is a left-wing populist of the sort common to Latin America. A former mayor of Mexico City who twice ran for president and lost, in 2006 and 2012, the 64-year-old Obrador, who spent decades as a radical outsider in Mexican politics, now finds himself in the seat of power in a country that’s falling apart.

During his populist campaign, the silver-haired Obrador railed against the corruption of incumbent President Enrique Peña Nieto and his the conservative Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which Obrador denounced, not without good reason, as a “mafia of power.” Indeed, under Peña Nieto Mexico’s economy has stagnated and crime has spiraled out of control. It’s not a stretch to say the intertwined crises of poverty, corruption, and crime have driven Mexicans in desperation to elect their first leftist president since 1934.

Conservative media in America have greeted the news with alarm. Writing here at The Federalist on Friday, Helen Raleigh warned that Obrador’s “radical ideas will spell trouble for both Mexico and the U.S.,” citing his affinity for socialist dictators like Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. His positive view of illegal immigration to the United States could precipitate “a surge of illegal crossings at our southern borders.”

Concerns about Obrador and the border are especially acute among conservatives. Victor Davis Hanson declared last week in National Review that Americans should be concerned about Obrador because he is “anti-American” and will position Mexico as an “aggressor” by promoting the notion that Mexicans have a “human right” to illegally enter the United States.

Beyond illegal immigration, conservatives fear Obrador’s socialist tendencies. The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal warned Friday that an Obrador victory would cause Mexico to “slide backward,” undoing the economic progress of recent decades and undermining Mexico’s rising middle class. Fears of a leftist Mexican president have been echoed by The Daily Caller, Fox News, and even Sen. John McCain. (Read more from “Mexico’s New Leftist President Is Not a Threat, but the Collapse of Mexico Is” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

With Cartels in Control, There Are No Easy Answers to the Border Crisis

/0 Comments/in , /by

. . .Libertarians, too, are grasping for simple solutions. Over at Reason, J.D. Tuccille suggests that “better smugglers” are the best way to fight Trump’s draconian border policy. “Immigrants and their supporters should give some thought, and effort, to improved smuggling channels that treat migrants better than the existing criminal networks, and offer them a better chance of success,” writes Tuccille. He doesn’t mention the possibility that these new smugglers might find themselves at odds with the old smugglers, whose profits are at stake, or that jumping into Mexico’s migrant smuggling trade as a freelancer carries the risk of, say, being beheaded by one of the cartels.

Tuccille’s facile take is emblematic of the way the media has more or less ignored the role that “criminal networks” are playing in all of this—a role that makes easy solutions impossible. Throughout the border crisis, the media’s attention has been focused on the plight of Central American families and the chaos created by Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. Sure, the president likes to exaggerate how many MS-13 gang members are crossing the border, but neither Trump nor his detractors are thinking seriously about the escalating violence and accelerating social collapse now underway in Mexico and Central America, and how crime syndicates are playing into illegal immigration along the southern border. . .

National elections in Mexico are set for July 1, and so far 121 political candidates, most of them running for local office, have been assassinated, along with dozens of their family members. Hundreds more have been attacked. On Thursday, a mayoral candidate in Ocampo, in the western state of Michoacan, was killed outside his residence—the third politician to be killed in Michoacan in just over a week. Federal police responded by arresting the entire town’s 27-officer police force on suspicion of involvement with the murder, another reminder that across Mexico drug cartels have infiltrated local and state police forces, political machines, and major industries. Candidates who speak out against corruption and vow to stand up to the cartels are especially in danger.

The violence is bad enough that the U.S. State Department has issued “do not travel” advisories for five Mexican states—Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, and Tamaulipas, whose northern boundary runs along the U.S. border from Brownsville to Laredo, Texas. These are the same travel advisories in place for countries like Libya, Syria, and North Korea. For much of the rest of Mexico, including nearly the entire U.S.-Mexico border, the State Department advises Americans to “reconsider travel.”

Tamaulipas is so dangerous right now that the interim governor of Nuevo Laredo, which sits directly across the Rio Grande from Laredo, has warned his citizens not to try to travel to the United States through Tamaulipas, and especially not through the town of Reynosa, across the river from McAllen, Texas. The official warning came a day after gunmen believed to be associated with the Gulf Cartel ambushed marines with the Mexican Navy three times in Nuevo Laredo, killing one and injuring 12 others. According to Mexican officials, the gunmen wore marine uniforms and drove vehicles with government markings. The ambushes only stopped when the marines called in a helicopter gunship for support. (Read more from “With Cartels in Control, There Are No Easy Answers to the Border Crisis” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Anti-U.S. Leftist Expected to Become Next Mexican President

/0 Comments/in , /by

Amid the national hysteria over American immigration and border security policy, many appear to be missing the potential massive impact that the coming elections in Mexico will have on these policies, along with the impact the election will have on U.S.-Mexico relations and the cooperation that is ultimately needed to end the crisis at the southern border.

Mexicans will head to the ballot box on July 1 to elect a new president. According to polling, far-left politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the clear favorite to lock up the presidency. Recent polls show that he consistently garners over 50 percent of expected voters’ support. His closest rival, Ricardo Anaya, registers around 25 percent support on average in recent polls.

López Obrador is not only a committed leftist, but he appears to be fiercely anti-American. As someone who rose through the political ranks attached to communist and socialist revolutionary politics, he has been described as the ideological “twin” of radical leftist British politician Jeremy Corbyn.

On the campaign trail, the front-runner has branded himself as a fierce nationalist and populist who wants to distance his country from the U.S. His leftist nationalism has drawn comparisons to the rhetoric of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

López Obrador has in the past pledged to stop all security cooperation with the United States. During the Trump presidency, his anti-American rhetoric has only increased.

In January, he pledged that if he were elected, he would put President Trump “in his place.” The next month, he said he would seek United Nations intervention to stop the United States from securing its southern border with Mexico.

“If he insists on building the wall, we’re going to turn to the United Nations to defend the rights of Mexicans. I’m conscious of my historic responsibility,” López Obrador said in a February debate.

“Mexico and its people will not be the piñata of any foreign government,” López Obrador said in a May speech targeting the United States. “It’s not with walls or use of force that you resolve social problems.”

However, in recent weeks, as his lead continues to climb, López Obrador has notably softened his tone.

Last week, López Obrador said he believes he can use diplomacy to convince the president to back off on his border wall policy.

It remains to be seen which ideology López Obrador will embrace should he become Mexico’s next president. Will his revolutionary impulses lead to the destruction of relations with the United States, or will his nationalist-centrist campaign result in a president who respects the sovereignty of his neighbor to the north? (For more from the author of “Anti-U.S. Leftist Expected to Become Next Mexican President” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Latino Soccer Fans – Especially Mexicans – Love to Call Opposing Players Homosexuals, but Then Get Fined by Fifa PC Police

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Guardian. You can say this for Mexican soccer fans: they’ve managed to turn one of football’s least dramatic moments into one of its more controversial … The pattern is familiar. The opponent’s goalkeeper lines up a goalkick and the chant begins: “Ehhhh…” Then Mexican fans’ voices rise in unison until the kick prompts a cry of “puto!”

The term is homophobic slang for a male sex worker. And its use by fans at matches from Mexico City to California and now Russia continues to give Fifa and the Mexican federation headaches. On Monday, Fifa announced it has opened a disciplinary procedure against Mexico after the chants were heard during El Tri’s victory over Germany. . .

The origins of the chant in Mexico are hazy, but it started at club level before going international. Two well-known Mexico keepers – Oswaldo Sánchez and Óscar Perez – are said to have been among the first targets of the chant at club level in the mid-00s. The chant occurred sporadically at the 2010 World Cup, but the 2014 tournament in Brazil brought it to a new level. ESPN and Univision offered disclaimers when it was picked up on their broadcasts, and columnists and writers called for its end.

Lamenting Fifa’s perceived inaction on the issue in 2014, Slate’s Juliana Jiménez Jaramillo wrote: “They can abstractly consider what the word means, but they don’t understand the visceral gut punch you feel when you hear a slur in your native language. The Mexican team’s officials, on the other hand, know exactly what puto means. At the very least, they could give a symbolic statement denouncing it, even if it still takes decades for the fans to catch up.” (Read more from “Latino Soccer Fans – Especially Mexicans – Love to Call Opposing Players Homosexuals, but Then Get Fined by Fifa PC Police” HERE)

_____________________________________________

Safe House for LGBT World Cup Fans Is Shuttered in Russia

By Advocate. A safe space for LGBT fans of the World Cup was shuttered on the eve of the international sporting event in Russia.

Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), an international human rights group that fights discrimination in sports, said its Diversity House program was evicted from its St. Petersburg location prior to the games.

“They asked us to leave the place very rudely, switched off the electricity and they explained nothing to us,” a spokesperson told the BBC. (Read more from “Safe House for LGBT World Cup Fans Is Shuttered in Russia” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Mexico Faces Power Struggle as Politicians Are Constantly Murdered

/1 Comment/in , /by

Since Mexico’s election season was launched in September, at least 82 candidates and politicians have been murdered according to Reuters and security consulting firm Etellekt. . .

Given the power of Mexico’s drug cartels, it’s unsurprising that the victims of these assassinations come from an array of political parties. Experts believe that gangs are behind the killings in an effort to intimidate lawmakers — and further infiltrate the government with politicians who are corruptible and will show them favor.

Vincente Sanchez, a professor of public administration at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana told The Daily Mail: “Criminal gangs want to be sure that in the next government, they can maintain their power networks, which is why they are increasing attacks.”

Such slayings have become all too common in Mexico of late. After five politicians were killed within a week around the turn of the new year, the country’s president of the National Association of Mayors declared, “We have called on the president asking for an immediate meeting to implement a security protocol for mayors. The insecurity cannot continue this way in our country.” . . .

While short on resources, Mexican authorities have started to provide security for candidates. But Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said, “State and local authorities are outgunned and outmaneuvered and the federal forces cannot be everywhere. There is an urgent need…to provide greater protection and insulation against organized crime.” (Read more from “Mexico Faces Power Struggle as Politicians Are Constantly Murdered” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.