A recent diplomatic tiff in Mexico illustrates the double standard whereby the Mexican government openly meddles in U.S. immigration policy but then gets offended when the shoe is on the other foot.
Mexico is currently in the midst of a political controversy regarding its judicial system. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) wants to pass a judicial reform before leaving office on October 1. This reform would put Supreme Court justices up for a vote by the electorate.
Critics of this measure warn it would damage the judicial independence of the Mexican Supreme Court.
This and other reforms can be expected to increase the power of the already-dominant MORENA party.
Ken Salazar, U.S. ambassador to Mexico, got himself involved in the controversy by releasing a declaration issued by the U.S. embassy opposing the judicial reform.
Ambassador Salazar wrote that the reform is a “risk” for Mexico, saying it “threatens the historic commercial relationship” between the two countries and would help the drug cartels “take advantage of inexperienced judges with political motivations.”
The Mexican government responded almost immediately with a diplomatic note sent to the U.S. embassy.
The next day [August 23] AMLO discussed the matter in his morning press conference.
AMLO went on a big spiel about it, but this excerpt sums up his objection to Salazar’s declaration:
“[W]e do not accept any representative of a foreign government to intervene in affairs that only correspond to we Mexicans to resolve.”
I think AMLO is right on this issue. Ambassador Salazar should have stayed out of this.
The proposed Mexican judicial reform, whatever we might think of it, is the business of the government and people of Mexico.
It’s especially inappropriate for the U.S. ambassador to get involved in an internal Mexican political controversy.
According to Article 55 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, of which both the U.S. and Mexico are signatories, “…it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities [diplomats] to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the State.”
So AMLO is right that Salazar shouldn’t meddle in Mexican politics.
But what about Mexico interfering in U.S. affairs?
It’s simply amazing how, for years, Mexico has meddled in U.S. immigration and nationality policy, with almost zero pushback from Americans.
In the 1990s, Mexico actually changed its own nationality law to allow previously-banned dual citizenship.
Why?
Mexican nationality law was specifically changed so that Mexican citizens could be dual citizens of Mexico and the U.S. to vote in U.S. elections in the interests of Mexico.
The result? Mostly crickets chirping in the United States.
It’s almost as though Americans (and especially U.S. politicians) don’t take Mexico seriously as a country that might have its own interests and promote them at our expense.
In addition to the Mexican embassy in D.C., there are 52 Mexican consulates on U.S. soil. It’s the biggest consular network in the world, yet you hardly hear about it.
Mexican diplomats working from these consulates blatantly meddle in U.S. internal politics.
They protect illegal aliens. They justify illegal immigration. They campaign against proposed U.S. legislation.
Mexican consulates promote dual citizenship, striving to win the loyalty of Mexican-Americans — even those born in the United States.
Mexican law, you see, recognizes the child of a Mexican, born anywhere in the world, as being entitled to Mexican citizenship.
I’ve been writing about this for years (see my incomplete Mexican meddling file here ), yet I’ve failed to get many people interested in it.
U.S. politicians don’t defend our sovereignty as AMLO defends that of Mexico.
American politicians are either uninterested in — or even worse, eagerly promote and cooperate with — Mexican interference.
For example, consider Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma’s Republican governor.
Stitt is so excited about his state’s new Mexican consulate that he thinks it’s Oklahoma’s fourth branch of government.
The bottom line is that Mexican meddling in U.S. immigration policy will continue for as long as we allow it.
The Globalists Are All Hat and No Cattle