Months ago when Donald Trump managed to draw the attention of the mainstream media by accusing Mexico of "sending" Mexicans (of all stripes) to the United States, he was ignorant of just how ordinary citizens from our neighboring nation make their way north. I know from my experience of living in Mexico when I directed a program for journalists at the University of Southern California. Every day it was possible for them to watch countless people make their way from every region in the country to the American Embassy in Mexico City, seeking visas to the United States. The lines were long, and they moved slowly, because the Embassy simply did not have enough personnel to process the applicants. They came in honest pursuit of visas to the U.S.
To hear Trump's lie that "Mexico" was "sending" these applicants was both outrageous and ignorant. I knew then and still do that the Mexican government had no interest in or ability to "send" its citizens north. The frustrated applicants came by themselves, with no visas and little money, and when they arrived at the border, they were recruited by handlers who directed them north to California, New Mexico, Texas and, somehow, Florida. I have photos showing how easy it was to cross the barbed-wire fence when I accompanied the journalists in my program to see the reality for themselves. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our
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04-07-2012, 03:13 AM
Obama Embraces National Security as Campaign Issue
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