Mexican President called for mass amnesty while refusing to take action against cartels
WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson released the following statement in response to Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s interview on 60 Minutes. During the interview, President López Obrador suggested that to secure the border, the United States should send $20 billion a year to support other countries’ economies, lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo and grant citizenship to millions of illegal aliens from Mexico living in the U.S.
In addition, he defended his refusal to take action against Mexican cartels and criticized Speaker Johnson’s call for the Biden Administration to apply pressure on the Mexican government to secure the border.
“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policy suggestion for securing the U.S. border is absurd. Handing the reins of the Western Hemisphere’s security to communists in Cuba and socialists in Venezuela will only further destabilize the region and increase illegal immigration. Likewise, mass amnesty will only serve to expand the Mexican cartels’ already growing and dangerous human trafficking operation,” said Speaker Johnson.”
“The truth is that we face a security and humanitarian catastrophe at the Southern border that is killing Americans and destroying our communities. Meanwhile, the President of Mexico is coddling cartels and demanding the United States bankroll even more mass migration into our country. President Biden needs to confront the fact that employing leverage, as President Trump did, and not empty rhetoric, is the only way to compel Mexico to do its important part in securing the border.
“We should be using every tool at our disposal to secure our border and stem the flow of aliens into the United States, including the Migrant Protection Protocols. And we should be bringing every bit of leverage to compel the Mexican government to cooperate.
“As he reflects on the kind of legacy he will leave behind, President López Obrador should look no further than the widespread emigration out of his country.”