President Donald Trump’s vow to deport millions of immigrants from the U.S. has gotten off to a slow start. The number of deported immigrants from the U.S. back to Mexico has not increased since the start of Trump’s term, Mexican officials reported Monday. They were supposedly lower than trends from last year.
While there was a spike in phone calls from citizens to Mexican consulates in the U.S. following Trump’s campaign promise to deport immigrants, Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the number of deportations has not risen, Reuters reported.
Trump’s remarks and opinions about Mexico date back to his first day running for president when he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and first made mention of his prospects to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border during his announcement speech in 2015. The president has also tweeted numerous times about Mexico, calling the country’s government “corrupt” and claiming that they are “killing us on jobs and trade. Fight!”
Statistics from Pew Research Center revealed there were 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. as of 2014, with 8 million immigrants comprising the U.S. civilian workforce. While more than half of unauthorized immigrants were Mexican – around 52 percent – the number of those immigrants living in the U.S. was down.
Even though Trump has publicly made negative comments about Mexico through speeches and social media, he has also previously said he “love[d] Hispanics” during Cinco de Mayo in May 2016 and has respect for the country’s leaders.
“”I am personally offended by the mainstream media’s attempt to distort my comments regarding Mexico and its great people. I have many successful business relationships with Mexican companies and employ and am close friends with many Mexican people. I also have tremendous respect for the leaders of Mexico, who, frankly, are much smarter and tougher than our politicians here in the United States,” Trump said a few days after he announced his campaign bid in 2015.
A visitor stood next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Friends of Friendship Park on Feb. 4, 2017 in San Ysidro, California. Photo: (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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