Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has told his “countrymen” living and voting in the United States not to support “immoral” American politicians such as Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. In a press conference on Friday, July 8, López Obrador said:
If there’s a candidate from a party that mistreats immigrants and Mexicans, we’re going to ask our countrymen there that they don’t vote for that candidate or party. Even though we are respectful of the sovereignty of other countries, we see that there are anti-immigrant campaigns for electoral purposes. I consider it immoral.
The statement came one day after Governor Abbott ordered Texas officials to apprehend “immigrants who cross the border between ports of entry or commit other violations of federal law, and to return those illegal immigrants to the border at a port of entry.”
So, not only do we have Mexicans–not Americans or Mexican-Americans, just plain Mexican nationals–voting in the United States, we also see the national leader of their actual country telling them how to vote. López Obrador’s obligatory mutterings about being respectful of other countries’ sovereignty is a joke–a joke we have played on ourselves by permitting the citizens of a foreign country to have a say in our domestic politics.
Of course, our own national leader in Washington couldn’t agree more with his Mexican counterpart. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, herself a Haitian immigrant, told reporters on Friday:
Immigration enforcement is a federal authority and states should not be meddling in it. That is especially for Texas Gov. Abbott. . . .
“Meddling” by an elected governor of a U.S. state is not allowed, but entirely welcome coming from a foreign leader. That’s life in America, 2022.