Mind providing your source? NYTimes’s figures say it’s about 2 to 1 for Hillary. I certainly didn’t vote for Trump, and he’s certainly hurt my country of origin - and my family and friends - already through word and deed.

Mexican Americans by and large are mixed in support or non-support of illegal immigration, but overall support efforts to regularize illegals. Strengthening the border is to a point important, but providing legal paths is more important, and by and large we believe that if the process was doable, most people would be legal. Precisely what you’d expect from the community.

Many Latino families, particularly of Mexican origin, are “immigration-status-mixed” (some citizens, some legal residents, some not so legal or with different types of visa difficulties) and therefore would suffer directly from a crackdown.

So no, in general, few people are going to vote for someone to deport tío Jesús or abuelita Juana.

There is also the important detail that many people who voted for Trump apparently did so for non-immigration reasons, thinking the promises to crack down were mostly talk. Log California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers. Just because a Mexican American voted for Trump, it doesn’t follow that they dislike illegal immigrants, or they want to buy Ivanka’s products, or they’d date their own daughter.

It’s a non-sequitur.

Oh! But that has already happened!

In August 1824 the Colonization Law, aimed at colonizing the territories of the North (yes, California, New Mexico and Texas were part of the new Republic of Mexico) was passed by the new Republican government that had defeated the Imperialistas and Iturbide. This piece of legislation allowed Americans to cross into Mexico, get an allowance of money, receive up to 70 square miles of property and several years of free taxes in order to help colonized those distant lands. By then, there were already a few thousand illegal Americans in Texas, and even after the Colonization Law was passed (as continuation of the earlier policy started a decade before under Spanish rule), many more American new comers decided not to follow due process in order to avoid expenditures related to completing the application steps and having their new properties surveyed, remaining in fact, as illegal immigrants.

One thing to note is that even before the Texas Revolutionary War had started and entire, until then, Mexican communities like Nacogdoches were expelled further South, many new colonists overtook lands that had been inhabited for a long time, forcing people out of their properties. “….where others send invading armies…(the Americans) send their colonists”, wrote then Mexican Secretary of State Lucas Aleman. By 1835, the new comers outnumbered the original Mexican residents at least 5 to 1, maybe more by some other estimates, in Texas. We already know what happened: unwilling to abide the law of the new land, which prohibited SLAVERY, and unwilling to FREE all the thousands of human SLAVES they brought with them and under the excuse of a coupe d’etat that replaced the Federalista goverment with a Centralista goverment, the so called “Texans” (none of them was actually born in Texas) rebelled and eventually joined the United States a few years later and ended participating as one of the Confederacy States that lost the Civil War in 1865.

So there it is. It has already happened and like the Native Americans, Mexicans also failed to asses the greed and attitudes of superiority of the new comers on time and lost Texas first, and New Mexico and California soon after that.

By not doing much.

Already some 9/10 of American citizens living in Mexico are there illegally, which means there are close to 1 million Americans living illegally in Mexico.

It is true that Mexican immigration laws are (ironically) stricter than American ones, and about 1 American citizen is actually deported from Mexico each day, usually because they are wanted by American justice…

But why aren’t more illegal Americans expelled?

First, because Mexican law enforcement has much more urgent things to do, such as dealing with the outrageous amount of violence in Mexico, than to hunt down and deport close to 1 million foreigners.

Second, a massive deportation would really put a strain not only in Mexico’s resources, but on its indispensable relationship with the USA. Deporting 1 million Americans would be like daring the US to deport 5 or 6 million Mexican illegals from American soil.

Third, lots of Americans in Mexico are usually living from income generated from the US (a pension or some business which they can attend to at a distance). They rarely take away any jobs from the locals.

Fourth, and perhaps most significantly, because American communities in Mexico are a boon to the local economies where they reside. Most Americans in Mexico are clustered around five or six spots where they are an important source of revenue; Los Cabos or San Miguel for example, would take a serious hit if most Americans there left or were deported.

As an American citizen who applied to work in Mexico, I believe I am qualified to state that Mexican immigration laws are more complex and difficult to follow than the laws in the US. So, if Americans suddenly, because of some sort of domestic issue, decided to emigrate to Mexico en masse, the Mexican immigration system would be so overwhelmed that most of the Americans would overstay their legal permission to visit Mexico and suddenly be considered illegals.

Those who live in Mexico can attest to the treatment the Mexican government gives to those Central Americans who enter illegally in Mexico on their way to the US. Similar treatment can be expected.

I don’t hate them. I feel for them. I really wish the US, Canada and Mexico could work together to create a mechanism to help Mexico overcome its two greatest difficulties in transitioning to a fully industrialized, stable nation—

• ending corruption
• ending the drug wars

—something along the lines of a treaty that empowers and helps Mexico really start fighting this issue. But that is like saying, “Ahhh, just get the flux capacitor working!” It’s a lot easier said than done.

I also think that the US needs to provide a path for hardworking resident workers (documented or not) to obtain legal residency. I believe that if the US created a guest worker system, open to millions of Mexicans that allowed for 9 months a year of documented work, with special exemptions from overtime laws and a different tax scheme (because, well, you’re guest workers and not permanent residents), we’d take control over the system rather than send it underground. The jobs that undocumented workers do, American citizens don’t and we’d see a spike in our food prices if we truly eliminated undocumented residents.

All of that being said, we have the right as a nation to have and enforce our border laws. The sins of the past (i.e. “The US conquered its land”) doesn’t mean that the nation today needs to make amends by throwing itself on its sword as an apology for those behaviors. This nation has laws and without them, we’d be in anarchy and nobody here illegally gets to whine and complain that the big mean Americans have laws they don’t like.

That’s my issue with this. I can feel empathy and want a better system while calling out the obvious: If you break our laws, you don’t get to complain when it catches up with you. The reason you’re here and we’re not in your country looking for work is because we have laws and enforce them. You don’t get the benefit without the cost.

When I was in college (Mexico City) I had the chance to have two Mexican-American classmates. I was studying Philosophy and the curricula required some Spanish Literature semesters. That’s where I met Maria and Norma (not the real names).

Whenever they had to speak in class they make obvious grammatical mistakes and almost always mixed English and Spanish words. You had to be somewhat patient to listen to their essays and the teachers corrected them frequently.

Two or three weeks after the semester started I was talking with some other classmates and they started a rant on how the new girls were stalling the class and how ridiculous their Spanish was. At one point someone asked: Are you talking about the pochas? To be honest, at that time, I did not pay too more attention on how racist the “pocha” adjetive was. It was until five years after that episode, when I tried to get a position in an American company and was rejected, that I remembered about Maria and Norma and how condescend we were towards them and I felt ashamed with myself.

When I was in college I had no idea on how expensive education is the US was. I didn’t talk too much with Maria or Norma but it is easy to guess why they fought their way to get admitted in a public Mexican College, where the tuition for a 5-year career costs less than a Big Mac. Today I admire their nerve to enroll in a course that required not only full command of the Spanish language but a deep knowledge in Spaniard and Latin American literature. I guess that they felt they would be among their own people -Mexicans- and that they will support them and encourage to be better. It was not the case.

Why were we so mean with them? Was it jealousy? Was it our way to state that our parents were better that their’s because ours decided to stay in our poor country? Were we just teenagers being teenagers? I, to this date, still don’t know.

It was in college, in a University that is an icon for human rights defense. I can not imagine how it is for Mexican-Americans coming to work or as kids at elementary school. It must be a hell for them.

In Mexico we have severe problems: Corruption, drug lords, poverty. And then we have racism. Racism in a Mexican is something that a foreigner simply can not understand. But it happens, and it lives in the heart of almost every Mexican. There are scientific studies that show evident correlation between skin color and mean salary (I know, correlation is not causation, but it gives you ideas). You would expect to find that correlation in Kansas City, not in Mexico City.

The Mexican racism is complex because it takes into account other parameters besides skin color: Is your last name rare? You are higher in the ladder. Did you study in private college? Up the ladder. Does your accent reveal a “bad neighborhood”? Down the ladder. Are you dark-skinned and your accent shows that you come from the US? Down the ladder. Are you blond and your accent shows that you come from the US? “Mister, you don’t have to ask: we had the top of the ladder waiting for you”.

I am sorry I can not fully answer your question. Why are we racist? Perhaps, when we can answer that question, we might be able to be the great country the World expect us to be.

Do you hate crime? Why?

Crime is not fair to honest people. There are often victims that incur losses due to crime. There are honest people trying to stay within the law that believe people outside the law should be punished.

The crime rate among illegal aliens is 100%, by definition.

I feel victimized by illegal immigration when my local school can’t fund an art program but will pay for English-as-a-Second-Language classes. I feel victimized when waiting at my local emergency room behind people who use it as their primary care center. I feel victimized when my car is hit by an unlicensed driver who isn’t supposed to be in this country in the first place. I feel personally affected by rampant illegal immigration. I want it to stop.

Do you hate criminals? Why not?

I don’t necessarily feel hatred toward the people who commit crimes. Some crimes are intentionally malicious and I’m pretty hateful toward those criminals, but some crimes are incidental. I don’t hate the guy speeding to the airport to catch a flight. I’ve been that guy. I feel empathy and compassion. But that still doesn’t excuse the crime or lead me to think it should be ignored. When I got busted for speeding I thought, “yeah, I deserved that.”

Apparently the Mexican government is not overly concerned with U.S. citizens living illegally in Mexico; at least not according to this from the BBC.

American 'illegals' in Mexico

My status here in Mexico is legal and always has been. So I don’t have any first hand experience with being an illegal in Mexico. But it seems that Mexico is not too worried about those from the U.S. that end up living here illegally.

The thing is, it is really not that difficult to live here legally provided you don’t need to get a job in Mexico. That is, for those who are retired or have some other type of “portable” income, getting legal permission to be in Mexico is fairly simple.

The tourist permit is typically for a six month stay and is virtually automatic if you have a U.S. passport. There are people who essentially live in Mexico but travel back to the U.S. for a day or so at least every six months. If they do not work then they are never illegally in Mexico. But they can have a house and belongings here without ever formally applying for a visa.

Mexico has a temporary residence visa as well. This visa does not automatically include the right to work and there are certain requirements to obtain this visa. But, it allows one to live full time in Mexico legally, generally for up to four years.

Finally, there is the permanent residence visa. This visa also requires an application and has certain requirements. But once granted, it allows one to live and work full time in Mexico. In fact, it has almost all of the benefits of Mexican citizenship except the right to participate in Mexican politics and own property in the restricted zones.

So, while it seems that Mexico does not overly concern itself with U.S. citizens living in the country illegally, there are so many fairly easy ways to be here legally that it just doesn’t make sense to be here illegally.

I think their situation is unfortunate. I can relate to them because my legal process was painful and long. There was a step of the process where I had to wait two years to see my parents and friends back home. That alone made me feel more compassionated towards them. (If they dare to go back to Mexico, they have to risk their lives to cross the border again) Just to know they might never see their mother again made me sad.

They comitted a misdemeanor while crossing the border or overstaying their visas and that’s something that I would never do because I’d hate to live in fear.

When Trump became president, I felt betrayed and marginalized, even though my day to day life hasn’t changed. So that’s a very important commonality I share with them: the hurt of being single out by the most powerful man in the country.

During my awfully long visa/residence process, the only thing that made me stay, was the money and time I had already invested. I can see undocumented people have way more invested in this country than the money and the decade it took for me. At least I was free to travel and and had many other important “privileges”, like having a driver’s license, rent a decent apartment, get access to credit… I could even have had the “privilege” to buy a house, should I decided to use it. So even if it felt somehow like a prison sentence, being tied to a single employer wasn’t THAT bad.

Going back to the undocumented, or makes my blood boil that our useless politicians, along with “the developed countries” that have trashed Mexico’s resources, like the have with dozen more “banana republics”, have kept the poor so poor that they don’t mind to risk their lives for a promise of a better life. (To be fair, the Mexico I knew and loved was middle class and comfy, with loving and supportive parents, but that middle class is disappearing)

I also feel I took the best life decision by not having children. Still, it makes me very sad to think about the thousands of parents being deported and separated from their young children. I would fight to take them with me to Mexico, should I be in their situation, but I guess they are just making a great sacrifice for a promise of a better life for their kids.

In conclusion, I believe their situation is desperate, and I would love for them (and all people around the world in a similar situation) to be able to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I work construction, which seems to be a bastion of regressive views (despite the fact that many of the people are great as coworkers), so I guess I can take a crack at this.

For working class white people outside of the service sector, undocumented immigrants are economic competition. In the construction trades immigrant crews are ubiquitous, and it isn't totally irrational to think that native workers would command higher wages if they could force out a large part of the workforce. Now, if someone insisted that we pass laws outlawing their competition so that they could make more money, we would generally consider them a grasping dirtbag. Hence seizing on the otherness of immigrant labor. And it isn't as if working class people aren't in a bad way in a lot of places. Lots of people don't want to be forced into the service sector, where the jobs are transient, often less than full time, and generally dead ends. I may not think that lashing out against a demographic that competes for the few good working class careers is justified, but I get why rationalizing it is easy for people. There really do seem to be some zero sum interactions going on here, and acknowledging that is probably the first step in convincing these people that there is another way forward.

I’ve never met someone who supports illegal immigration. Most likely, you’re referring to people like me who don’t support the government spending a lot of money trying to stop a problem that isn’t a problem. Illegal immigrants are not, as Trump likes to say, rapists and criminals.

As for the jobs they take after coming to the US? Forget about it. Capitalists have stolen more jobs than all the illegal immigrants in America TIMES A THOUSAND. Whatever job crisis we face in the US, it isn’t caused by illegal immigrants. It’s caused by GREED. It’s inflicted on us by the top 1%. Jobs aren’t going to illegal immigrants, they’re going to China.

Mexicans probably don’t care because most of the “Americans” that don’t want them in America are idiots, and don’t understand that the bulk of the people applying for refugee status, are actually not from Mexico, but more likely from Honduras or Guatemala.

Said Americans also don’t realize that a lot of the menial labor done near the US Mexico Border on the American Side, i.e hand picking produce, is done by day labor coming across the border - doing work that no american would stoop to, or be able to sustain.

Of course, if you are looking at Mexican Labor in the US, look no further than any of the Trump Properties. They apply for hundreds of H2 visas for temporary low skilled workers every year…

Not much. I have Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in my family. Though if you want the truth, “Mexican Americans”, “African Americans” etc are nothing more than just plain old boring Americans. At least once you travel the world. They are no different where it counts and matters: culture. If you’re born here, you’re one of us, you take the culture 100%, there’s no way around it.

So often times the stereotype of Mexican-Americans, commonly called chicanos by Mexicans is that they’re kinda shifty. Tattoos, shifty way of looking and behaving, common signs of a chicano vs Mexican. That’s how you know you’re not dealing with a real born and raised Mexican, the person is covered in tattoos.

Of course, that’s generalizing. Not everyone of course. But people do generalize, and there’s lots of truth to it. I’m white, my wife was born, raised, and got her bachelors degree in Mexico (Masters here), and I go off the tattoos and general hood look to tell a Mexican and chicano apart.
In Mexico, only hardened criminals are covered by tattoos. Like how it used to be here in the US. 👍

That sketchy, shifty persona is just *American* culture coming through. Many people and families are totally destroyed coming to the USA, unfortunately.

Just the way it is here in the States. This is not a family-friendly country in any way and it ruins them most of the time, without significant effort put out by the parents. So most of us Americans are pretty sketchy, including Mexican-Americans.

Racism has nothing to do with it. Leeching on our system and being here without OUR permission is like they broke into our house and have set up housekeeping and expect us to take care of them.

I’m not their mommy. Every last one of them needs to be deported to come back here LEGALLY like all the immigrant.

And they are NOT undocumented migrants as you called them. They are illegal aliens who have not right to be here, broke into our country and are now demanding that we take care of them.

Legal migrants come here with paperwork, a visa of some sort, a passport, have a job or are going to school or visiting or have come as a LEGAL immigrant. And guess what, they are totally pissed at these illegals showing up and getting treated like they are queens and kings while making trouble for everyone else.

We now have tens of thousands of criminals, terrorists, and leeches who have no intention of working believing they should get taken care of better than our citizens. They are using our healthcare, schools, scarce housing, expecting to be clothes and fed at OUR expense. This is costing us several billion of dollars a year for OUR taxes. Meanwhile, they get “jobs” and don’t pay taxes and send 90% of what they get back home to support the country they came from. They refuse to assimilate, insist we learn their language and get upset when we refuse to do so.

It has nothing to do with “race” but has everything to do with criminal behavior starting the minute they walked, ran, swam or forced their way across our border illegally, breaking our immigration laws.

Really we as Mexican do not defend or vilify the fact of defending illegals. We just think it is against human rights not just in America but all over the world, that is the history of mankind. Please allow me explain a little bit. First “illegal” Mexicans were either farmers or "braseros". "brasero" was a temporary work program during and after the second war, many of brasero families came to work in what used to be Mexican lands. Texas, and California and 40% of America was Mexico before 1845, not too far ago, my grand grandfather was born in 1847, my grandfather in 1881, my father in 1917; so Texas annexation time was only 3 generations ago.

We do not pretend change the past, but a little of comprehension to understand the migration forces. After all, United States as a country was made just from immigrants and a few natural Indian survivors.

The farmers that came during that program was people that hardly knew read and write. Does you grandfather was educated as you are?. So after they made a life here during 15 years the "brasero" plan ended. Now the braseo become to be "illegal".

Hard to return, after a whole life, we say after creating roots, friends & family.

In other hand in Texas more than 50% of the land was steeled to "colonos" that came to Texas before the annexation and they lost their lands.

So a Mexican that fights Mexican, or French that fight Frenches, are renegades and greedy persons.

Persons that instead, of helping a little bit they try to snatch greedily whatever they can.

And for finishing, let me tell you that is very human to protect the own of yours, the cohorts, the ones of your clan, those who speak the same language, same culture. So "a contrio sensu", one of the group that attacks to the same flock, herd, pack or tribe must be called "renegade" , shame on such person!