White House Secretary claims relationships with Mexico phenomenal

Just as a two-day meeting of Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and John Kelly Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), with Pena Nieto Mexican president and other officials begins, the two countries disagree as to the quality of their relationship.

lodd Im

When White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about the meeting and the state of relations between the two countries he said:

“We have a very healthy and robust relationship with the Mexican government, and Mexican officials and I think they would echo that same sentiment. President Peña Nieto has echoed that at well. I think the relationship with Mexico is phenomenal right now, and I think there’s an unbelievable and robust dialogue between our two nations.”As in the quote, Spicer also thought that president Nieto would offer the same opinion. That seems highly unlikely.

Last month President Nieto abruptly cancelled a visit to Washington after disagreements about Mexico paying for the wall on the border that Trump has ordered built. As one article suggests perhaps the two leaders were backed into a corner: " Donald Trump by his promises in the campaign that he was going to build that wall and Mexico was going to pay for it, and Pena Nieto because his approval ratings are so terrible, that he has to play hardball politically. " Trump suggested later that the meeting was cancelled by mutual agreement. It was more like mutual disagreement!

On February 13th two separate demonstrations against Trump policies in Mexico City drew about 20,000 people as shown on the appended video. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray claimed that Mexico would not accept unilateral immigration policies as Trump had been issuing:"I want to say clearly and emphatically that the government of Mexico and the Mexican people do not have to accept provisions that one government unilaterally wants to impose on the other. We will not accept it, because there's no reason why we should, and because it is not in the interests of Mexico."Videgaray was responding to the issuance by the DHS of two memos which give immigration authorities considerable power and latitude to deport undocumented immigrants. Many more could be deported back to Mexico. The memos are discussed in a recent Digital Journal(DJ) article and the arrival of US officals is discussed in another DJ article. Tillerson and Kelly will have done a phenomenal job if they are even able to bring Mexican US relationships back to normal.