Did Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum incite the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles? That charge has been circulating on the internet.
On June 10th, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that “Claudia Sheinbaum came out and encouraged more protests in LA, and I condemn her for that. She should not be encouraging violent protests that are going on.”
This was rapidly denied by President Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum has also denounced the violence and even criticized the use of the Mexican flag in the riots.
Possibly Secretary Noem based her accusation on Sheinbaum’s June 8th comments (reported here on Mexico News Report) in which Sheinbaum said she didn’t agree with the ICE raids and supported Mexican immigrants in the United States.
These are standard talking points that any Mexican president would use, but they don’t really constitute encouraging violent protests.
Mexican Senator Lilly Tellez accused President Sheinbaum of calling for the demonstrations, which she said were carried out by MORENA party members in the United States.
On the internet, the main proof for this accusation was a very brief (13-second) video in which Claudia Sheinbaum made this forceful declaration: “… because if necessary we are going to mobilize because we don’t want taxes on the remittances of our fellow Mexicans to Mexico.”
What’s she talking about?
The problem with short videos is they don’t provide much context.
I wanted to see the context, so I located the source of the video. It was part of a discourse Sheinbaum delivered in the state of San Luis Potosi on May 24th.
Click here for a video of the whole discourse, the relevant part begins after 47 minutes. And here is the transcript.
In this discourse, Sheinbaum spoke about the proposal in the U.S. Congress to tax remittances. Of course President Sheinbaum is against that proposal. Any Mexican president would be. She was complaining about it when she made her mobilization comment.
All of us, regardless of our views, should be careful how we handle our sources.
I see no solid evidence that President Sheinbaum incited the riots in Los Angeles. Besides, it doesn’t fit her standard operating procedure nor that of Mexican presidents in general.
Does that mean the Mexican government doesn’t meddle in U.S. politics?
No, I wouldn’t say that either.
The Mexican government does meddle in U.S. politics, but in a different manner. Not by calling for riots, but by claiming sovereignty over U.S. citizens of Mexican ancestry.
The Mexican government has been doing this for years but nobody in the U.S. government, of either party, seems to give a hoot about it.
In the 2016 election the Mexican diplomatic corps had a program to help Mexicans in the United States rapidly nationalize as U.S. citizens. Why? So they could vote against Donald Trump !
There was nary a peep against this from anybody in authority nor even from the Trump campaign.
In the 1990s, Mexico changed its nationality law to allow dual citizenship, specifically so Mexicans could vote in U.S. elections in the interests of Mexico.
That’s the real story, ignored in favor of a 13-second video ripped out of context.
In Sheinbaum’s San Luis Potosi discourse, she did not call for riots on U.S. soil. But she did talk about using dual citizens to meddle in U.S. politics, arguably more injurious to U.S. sovereignty than inciting riots.
Here’s what she said: “We called on our paisanos [fellow Mexicans] that are there, many of them have double nationality… to send emails on their social networks to [U.S.] senators to tell them that we do not agree with that [taxes on remittances]…”
If you know that you can make sense of the 13-second segment: “… because if necessary we are going to mobilize because we don’t want taxes on the remittances of our fellow Mexicans to Mexico.”
President Sheinbaum wasn’t calling for riots but for dual citizens to contact their U.S. senators to influence them to vote against taxes on remittances.
That very brief video circulating not only gave viewers the wrong impression but failed to show the real meddling President Sheinbaum was actually calling for !
But there’s more: “We [Mexicans] are almost 40 million over there among the first, second and third generations, that is, grandparents who went to live there and that had their children and their grandchildren and they all want to have double nationality and now they have been nationalized in the United States for a long time, many of them that are there.”
When President Sheinbaum talks about “40 million Mexicans” in the United States she is including American citizens and even American citizens who were born in the U.S. and have never visited Mexico.
Sheinbaum is not unique in this viewpoint. That’s the common view in Mexico, that Americans citizens of Mexican ancestry are essentially Mexican, regardless of citizenship.
Could that be a threat to U.S. citizenship and sovereignty?
U.S. politicians don’t care about it. But maybe American citizens ought to at least be aware of it.
It illustrates a real disconnect between how immigration and citizenship are viewed in Mexico and in the United States.
That’s a bigger potential problem than the riots but it wasn’t included in that 13-second video.
Here at Mexico News Report the goal is to provide accurate, documented information on Mexico, in context. Click here if you would like to donate to the work.