Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum has taken to wearing a “Make Tijuana Great Again” hat stylized after Trump’s famous MAGA cap to signal is Mexico-first position on the growing mob of migrants camped out in the border town.
#EnW @ernestoeslava reportero en #Tijuana#CaravanaMigrante
Foto 📸Juan Manuel Gastelum, Alcalde de #Tijuana
con gorra que dice “Make Tijuana great again” (como las de Trump en campaña)#AsíLasCosas pic.twitter.com/6YqjDcUjce— Así Las Cosas (@asilascosasw) November 16, 2018
A survey by the Mexican newspaper El Universal published Sunday shows the vast majority of Mexicans seem to share his perspective, with nearly three quarters who believe “undocumented migrants” are bad for their communities.
According to Telemundo, via Google translation:
46% of those surveyed considered that crime would increase, and another 27.1% would ‘take jobs away from Mexicans,’ so that the sum of both percentages shows that 73.1% of citizens have an unfavorable opinion of the phenomenon.
This figure is higher than the figure for October, when a survey conducted by the same newspaper indicated that 64.5% of Mexicans considered that Central American migrants would cause violence (39.7%) or reduce employment for the people of the country (24.8%).
A bulletin by Mexico’s National Institute of Migration on Sunday reported at least 9,000 migrants have flooded into the country in route to the United States, and roughly 1,900 later voluntarily returned to their home country.
The November survey, conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 citizens last week, also showed roughly half are opposed allowing migrants into Mexico to seek refuge, with 52 percent in support the government’s efforts to block migrants without documentation.
“Additionally, 52.8% of the population disagreed with the announcement by Mexico’s president-elect, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to give work visas to Central American migrants arriving in Mexico,” Telmundo reports.
Also, “55.8% of Mexicans said that Lopez Obrador should be ‘harder’ with future migrant caravans that can reach the country, compared to 22.4% who said that they should act ‘in the same way’ and 16.7% who considered they should be ‘more flexible.’”
The survey took place as Tijuana protestors have taken to the streets in recent weeks to voice their opinion about the nearly 5,000 migrants who have flooded into the city. Police have intervened in an attempt to reduce tensions and clashes between locals and their uninvited guests. On a recent Sunday, hundreds of Tijuana residents toted signs that read “No illegals,” “No to the invasion” and “Mexico first” as they waived Mexican flags, donned Mexican soccer jerseys, and chanted “Ti-ju-ana!” and “Me-xi-co!” NPR reports.
“Tijuana is a place that welcomes anyone, but you must have papers, you must identify yourself,” demonstrator Magdelana Baltazar told the news site. “We work hard here. We don’t get handouts. The government shouldn’t be giving things to migrants when plenty of Mexicans are in a difficult positions.”
VIDEO: #Tijuana resident Eliva Villegas’ thoughts on the #MigrantCaravan. pic.twitter.com/8Br4QfvX3H
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) November 20, 2018
Many said the migrants should be deported.
Gastelum, meanwhile, is highlighting some of the same concerns Trump has harped on for years, including the very obvious reality that some hoping to gain asylum in the U.S. are very bad hombres.
“I would dare say that not all of htem are migrants,” Gastelum said earlier this month. “Sure, there are some good people in the caravan, but many are very bad for the city.”
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