Category Archives: The Immigrant Experience

Mexico Hits Trump’s Wall; Why this is “a rejection of the neighborhood itself”

SAN FRANCISCO — When President Trump signed an executive order to build a border wall, he unleashed a political crisis in Mexico.

With a stroke of the pen, the NAFTA nations — the U.S., Canada, and Mexico — went from being the “three amigos” to “frenemies.”

As recently as October 2016 Mexico’s ambassador was confident Donald Trump would not be elected president. “It’s not going to happen,” Miguel Basañez told me at the time.

But it did happen — and Mexico’s hope that it could work with Canada to present a united front against the Trump administration came undone when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was informed that Trump would work out “a bilateral agreement” with Canada alone to salvage the mutual benefits both countries derived from NAFTA.