The nation’s most prominent Spanish-language evening news anchor is, arguably, also its most prominent advocate for open borders; and he isn’t shy about using his many platforms and bylines in furtherance of that goal.
Univision’s Jorge Ramos recently took his pen to The New York Times, where he offered up his take on the border security deal entered into by the respective governments of Mexico and the United States. The column’s title, “The AMLO-Trump Deal Is Punishing the Most Vulnerable”, leaves no doubt as to where Ramos stands on the deal that prevented a levy of new tariffs against Mexico, and on any attempt to secure the border.
From the very outset, Ramos makes clear his belief that border enforcement is an exercise in futility:
MIAMI — Central Americans will continue to flee their homes and head north no matter what sort of agreements the presidents of Mexico and the United States come to. Powerful forces — brutal violence, extreme poverty, the effects of climate change — are driving these men, women and children to leave. They are also being motivated to go north by the hope that they might live in the world’s wealthiest country. Simply put, the new wall that President Trump and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, are putting up in the form of an immigration agreement isn’t going to stop them.
After breaking down the situation in Central America’s Northern Triangle, Ramos weighs in on what he thinks should be the priorities of Mexico’s National Guard:
The recently formed Mexican National Guard is still just an experiment and has yet to prove its effectiveness. However, as directed by Mr. Trump and AMLO’s immigration deal, 6,000 of its agents will soon be deployed to the country’s southern border to make it harder for Central Americans to cross into Mexican territory.
In addition, Mexico has publicly agreed to serve as a “waiting room” for the United States. That means that thousands of Central American asylum seekers have to wait in Mexican cities, possibly for months or even years, while their claims are being processed. Mexico is doing what President Trump wants: serving as his immigration police force.
But the Mexican National Guard should be focusing on fighting crime at home, not on stopping harmless Central Americans from reaching the United States — particularly when 14,000 Mexicans have been murdered since President López Obrador took office last year. Among those killed was the journalist Norma Sarabia. She was gunned down on June 11 outside her home in the state of Tabasco, the sixth reporter murdered in Mexico this year.
Stopping this violence should be AMLO’s No. 1 priority. Instead, Mexico is diverting huge sums of money to do President Trump’s dirty work.
After registering his 'heartbreak' over the deal, Ramos closes with a return to his “border enforcement” is futile theme:
Nothing can stop a mother or a father when their children’s lives are in danger. The AMLO-Trump deal may slow down the Central American immigration wave but won’t stop it. It’s simply too powerful.
I remember the day I met Oscar, a 10-year-old boy from Honduras, in the smothering heat of Tapachula. Although he was exhausted, he wouldn’t stop walking. “What do you think about the United States?” I asked. “That it is pretty,” he answered.
Mr. Trump and Mr. López Obrador will never be able to kill that sort of hope.
Readers are left with an open question, one that lingers every time that Ramos weighs in on migrant caravans or border enforcement: Is there any level of border enforcement that Ramos would find acceptable?
So far, the answer seems to be a resounding no.
