Donald Trump to Mexico: ‘We Want Action, Not Talk’

President Donald Trump has ridiculed the Mexican diplomatic delegation which will arrive in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, saying, “We want action, not talk.”

“Mexico is sending a big delegation to talk about the Border,” he tweeted Sunday afternoon. “Problem is, they’ve been “talking” for 25 years. We want action, not talk. They could solve the Border Crisis in one day if they so desired. Otherwise, our companies and jobs are coming back to the USA!”

The Mexican delegation is trying to prevent Trump from imposing escalating tariffs on Mexico’s exports if the country does not stop its export of illegal migrant labor to the United States. In the 12 months up to October 2019, Mexico’s territory is expected to serve as the delivery route for roughly 800,000 Latin American migrants who will damage Americans’ blue-collar wages, neighborhoods, and schools.

On Thursday, Mexico’s government published a response to Trump’s promise, saying that migrants have a right to walk into the United States.

Business groups also oppose the Trump tariff strategy partly because it will disrupt their cheap-labor production in Mexico.

Worse, if Trump’s plan succeeds, it would also slow or block their economic stimulus delivered by the inflow of Central American workers, consumers, and renters. The inflow is an indirect subsidy for companies because it reduces pressure on the companies to raise wages for Americans and also to hire sidelined, untrained, or low-quality American workers, or to buy the labor-saving machinery which makes Americans more productive and wealthy.

Earlier on Sunday, Trump dismissed the chances that Mexico’s government might quickly agree to help block the transshipment of cheap labor from Central America into U.S. worksites:

Trump’s focus on Mexico’s government comes as the Central American migration shows that a border fence or wall cannot work unless border laws are also reformed.

So, Trump’s deputies are using the tariff threat to persuade Mexico to sign a “safe third party” agreement which would allow U.S. border officials to return Central American migrants to Mexico or their home countries if they do not apply for asylum in Mexico.

The U.S. officials also want Mexico to better guard its 700-mile southern border with Guatemala. That task is made easier by the dense jungle which blocks easy passage for more than 500 miles of the Guatemalan-Mexico border.

Trump’s chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, described the administration’s goals during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday show:

It’s much easier to secure that border than it is our border, because it’s so much shorter. It’s about a quarter of the length. They could do that. The Mexican government can crack down on their domestic terrorist organizations, their crime organizations. Right now, in Mexico, there’s roughly 100,000 people trying to move up to the U.S. border. They don’t do that by themselves. They do that with the cooperation of these, of these crime groups. The Mexicans can do more there.

Mulvaney also spotlighted the need for a “safe third country” deal with Mexico:

And lastly, they can make Mexico a safe third country. Keep in mind, if you — if you leave a country, say you leave El Salvador, and you say, “I’m seeking asylum,” the law says you’re supposed to seek asylum in the first safe country in which you arrive. Mexico is safe. The Mexican government can address this

Few establishment media outlets have described the administration’s goals or plans – or even ask Democrats if they would support a “safe third country” deal with Mexico. Instead, most prefer to spotlight business’ concerns and to argue that Trump’s strategy will hurt American consumers.

Mulvaney also argued that Mexico has not cooperated in securing the border:

Yeah, well, you assume, in that question, that we haven’t been having those conversations with the Mexicans, that of a sudden, this sort of came out of the blue, out of left field. And that’s not the case. You know we’ve been in contact with the Mexicans. One of the reasons that you have seen them slightly increase the number of people they’re taking back into Mexico is because we have been working with them for over, I think, almost two years now. So this –

…

What I told you before, about that group of 1,000 people crossing the border, was sort of the, the touchstone for this. But this is something the administration has taken up. I’ve been acting chief of staff now for about six months. I think we’ve probably discussed it two or three different times. So this is not a new idea. It was not out of left field.

Trump also used his Sunday tweets to slam Democrats for holding open the catch-and-release loopholes in the border fences:”

Many Democrats say the United States is a “nation of immigrants” — not of Americans. Democrats also prefer to portray the job-seeking economic migrants as needy refugees fleeing crime and fame, even though many of the migrants clearly state they are migrating to get U.S. jobs and to get their kids into U.S. classrooms.

Immigration Numbers

Each year, roughly four million young Americans join the workforce after graduating from high school or university.

But the federal government then imports about 1.1 million legal immigrants and refreshes a resident population of roughly 1.5 million white-collar visa workers — including approximately one million H-1B workers — and approximately 500,000 blue-collar visa workers.

The government also prints out more than one million work permits for foreigners, tolerates about eight million illegal workers, and does not punish companies for employing the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants who sneak across the border or overstay their legal visas each year.

This policy of inflating the labor supply boosts economic growth for investors because it ensures that employers do not have to compete for American workers by offering higher wages and better working conditions.

This policy of flooding the market with cheap, foreign, white-collar graduates and blue-collar labor also shifts enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors, even as it also widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, and hurts children’s schools and college educations. It also pushes Americans away from high-tech careers and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions. The labor policy also moves business investment and wealth from the heartland to the coastal cities, explodes rents and housing costs, shrivels real estate values in the Midwest, and rewards investors for creating low-tech, labor-intensive workplaces.