MEXICO CITY – A group of Mexican legislators and high-rank officials are in Washington. Their visit is not about trade or to meet with president Donald Trump, but to insist on the reunification of immigrant families separated on the border.
Luis Videgaray, the Mexican secretary of foreign affairs, and Mexican congress members are meeting with American legislators and diplomats from the Organization of American States, the continent's main coalition of nations.
They're lobbying against the Trump administration’s current immigration policy and the resulting separation of immigrant families – most of them from Central America.
And despite less than 1 percent of the minors separated from their families are Mexican, the neighboring country is actively pushing for a solution.
“It’s very important for Mexico, because many of these families are from Central America and they cross though our country, and they are also our brothers. We take care of them the same way they take care of Mexico,” said José Fernández Santillán, a political science professor at Mexico City’s Tec de Monterrey. “Mexico is trying to take the role as a leader of Latin America.”
Santillán thinks President Trump’s policies have united the affected countries, as well as those all over the world who think family separations should be a thing of the past.
“This is a fascist or Nazist policy. As a professor of political science, I don’t remember this kind of behavior, except in the Second World War,” said Santillán.
The researcher in U.S.-Mexico politics said the solution to the problem also relies on helping Central America defeat its political crises, including Nicaragua’s recent uprises and violence.
