Unlock the White House Watch watch newsletter for free
Your guide on what Trump's second term for Washington, Business and the World means
Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum pushes legislators to quickly prohibit advertising by foreign governments after the Trump administration launched television spots threatening to “track down” “illegal” immigrants.
The announcement understands that the interior security secretary, Kristi Noem, said to migrants: “If you come to our country and break our laws, we will track you down.”
It was published for the first time in February as part of an anti-immigration campaign of $ 200 million and was broadcast in Mexico in football matches last weekend. The announcement shows that people are gathered by the authorities, rushing through the border and apparently dealing with drugs.
Sheinbaum Forcedly reacted to advertisements this week, calling them “discriminatory” and asking them to be deleted.
She sent a bill on the Senate of Mexico to stop foreign governments of radio and television advertising, with the exception of cultural or tourist promotions. Senators will discuss the legislation on a committee on Thursday and should adopt it on Monday, when the bill will go to the lower chamber.
“Foreign governments should not spread propaganda in our country, neither political, neither ideological nor anything of such,” said Sheinbaum, who has hitherto endeavored to compete to appease the American president Donald Trump.
The advertisements were broadcast on Mexican television during prime time by the largest broadcaster in the country, Grupo Televisa.
Mexicans have mainly joined around Sheinbaum since Trump began to threaten the country with prices and measures against drug cartels: its popularity exceeded 80%. The coalition of his Party Morena has a dominant majority in the congress, and opposition legislators also condemned Trump advertisements.
The proposed legislation would introduce heavy fines for media companies which have violated the rules and also includes separate modifications to the efforts of Cement Sheinbaum to dismantle and replace the Mexico telecommunications regulator.
Televisa, in particular, is taken between the governments of Mexico – which grants its local concession – and the United States, where it has the largest diffuser in Spanish, univision. Once fiercely critical of Trump, the network was considered to have softened its coverage of him during the presidential election campaign last year.
Televisa did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The American Department of Internal Security said that the advertising campaign “worked”. “The data shows that the world hears our message,” he said in a statement.
Since Trump took office, the number of migrants apprehended on the border has reached the lowest levels for decades. Mexico politicians respect migrants in their public statements, but the authorities have considerably intensified the detention and increased migrant buses which they send further south.
The second Mexican broadcaster, TV Azteca, said in a statement that he had “rejected” a request to disseminate the announcement.
The National Council of the country for the prevention of discrimination said that the announcement was “affront to human dignity” which had violated the Constitution and asked for it to be withdrawn.
