Mexico Proposes Legislation to Counter US Border Wall Expansion Lorne Matalon - Fronteras Desk
go to original December 28, 2016

Mexico Wants to Use Border, Migration as Leverage in Trump Talks (Wochit Politics)

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has said he wants to work collaboratively with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Peña hasn't commented on the wall publicly since the U.S. election. But his Foreign Secretary, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, has. “We’ve been very clear on the fact that Mexico will never consider paying for a wall," she told PBS Newshour.

Miriam Grunstein is an attorney and former advisor to the Mexican Senate on energy and international law. Legislation has been proposed at the Mexican Senate that bans the use of public funds on any project that is “against the country’s interest." That's widely taken to mean the wall.

"Just because of, you know, tantrums, we could really waste a golden opportunity of uniting," Grunstein said.

The proposed Mexican legislation would lead to a review of some of the most fundamental treaties between the two countries, among them the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe. The treaty ceded Texas and California, as well as parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming to the U.S.

The bill also states, "in cases where the assets of our fellow citizens or companies are affected by a foreign government, as Donald Trump has threatened, the Mexican government should proportionally expropriate assets and properties of foreigners from that country on our territory."

Translated that means that should Trump follow through on threats to expand the wall, withdraw U.S. participation in NAFTA or stop remittances, Mexico could target U.S. assets in Mexico. Assets estimated by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative at over $100 billion.

Read the rest at Fronteras Desk

Related: Mexico Eyes Border, Migration as Leverage in Talks with Trump (Reuters)

Related: U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul: Yes, We Will Build a Wall and Put Mexico on 'Payment Plan' (Katy Times)

Related: Securing US Border May Cause Problems with Immigration, Drugs, Criminals, and Cartels to Grow Worse (Epoch Times)

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