Actress Salma Hayek believes the question of who is going to pay for President Donald Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is beside the point — because, she says, the wall itself is a “dumb” idea.
“It’s a dumb solution and proposition,” the 50-year-old How To Be a Latin Lover star told People magazine Wednesday. “Whether it gets built, whether it doesn’t get built, nobody has given you a real budget on it — we do know it’s billions and billions of dollars. We’re talking about who’s going to pay for it and the wall is not the solution. How is this wall that is immense going to go through the many rivers? Are you going to build dams? Are you going to go up and down the mountains?”
The Oscar-nominated actress, who reportedly moved to the U.S. from her native Mexico in 1991, warned that the focus on issues like the wall is a “trap” designed to distract from what is really needed in the country: namely, “smart reforms” on immigration.
“There are smarter ways we can come up with to control immigration, and do immigration reform that is much more beneficial for America,” Hayek told the magazine. “For example, there’s a lot of work for farmers in this country and there are not enough farmers for all the work there is. A lot of the people that do not want to be involved in the drug industry of Mexico are very skilled farmers; they do not want to participate in that so some of them are here.“
The actress added that many farm workers who illegally enter the United States “don’t necessarily want to stay” and would be happy to return to their countries once the harvesting season is complete.
“America can benefit from these expert workers and they can pay taxes that can benefit America,” she said.
On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill that would allow the United States to use $14 billion seized from imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for the construction of the border wall. Trump said repeatedly during his presidential campaign that the Mexican government would fund construction of the wall, and the issue is a key focus of negotiations over an upcoming spending bill that hopes to avert a government shutdown.
Hayek has spoken out previously on immigration; in October, the actress starred in a campaign advertisement for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that urged voters to choose Clinton to support “undocumented immigrants who don’t have a voice.”
In August, Hayek blasted Trump in an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, offering to lend the then-Republican candidate a copy of her book U.S. History for Dummies.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dnzussbaum
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