By Juan Hernandez
When the richest man in the world, the American Elon Musk, announced an investment of more than US$4 billion to open a Tesla plant in Nuevo León, the bilateral relations between the governments of the United States and Mexico were tense. The U.S. State Department, headed by Antony Blinken, called for strengthening an independent electoral system in Mexico, a comment that caused our president to declare that «there is more democracy in Mexico than in the United States.» In the midst of these bilateral controversies, there are always collateral victims: public institutions, the business sector and, above all, citizens, including our migrant community. Despite the diplomatic discussions, if we must be clear about something, it is that democracy will continue in both countries, in spite of their respective governments. And if we should celebrate something, it is that with Tesla, thousands of job opportunities are created for Mexicans.
Bilateral relations are essential for the development of all countries. In our case, the political, economic, and cultural life of the United States and Mexico would not be understood without the deeply rooted ties that unite us. In economic matters, for example, we are fighting with Canada to be the main trading partners of the American Union. On cultural issues, we already have so much influence on the customs of our neighbors to the north (largely by migrants, by the way), that Mexican guacamole once again became one of the inevitable star of the Super Bowl, surpassing Rihanna in popularity. On political issues, what can we say if in 2024 there will be presidential elections in both countries and, depending on the results of the two contests, the doors to a better bilateral relationship may remain open or, perhaps, they will end up closing.
However, in terms of migration, the bilateral relationship between the United States and Mexico is one of the most complex. We could talk about several historical moments that have marked it for better and for worse. If we focus on contemporary times, we can highlight that the last great comprehensive reform was carried out by Ronald Reagan in 1986, more than 37 years ago when the president of Mexico was Miguel de la Madrid. And more recently, the era of Donald Trump was characterized by his narrative of hate towards migrants: «They send us people with a lot of problems that bring us drugs, crime, rapists…,» he commented in a speech referring to our Mexican countrymen.
In the case of the current governments, the specialists speak of the fact that Joe Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador have shown a somewhat cold and distant relationship. Although the North American Leaders Summit was held a few weeks ago, migration did not figure as a major part of the agenda, even though it is a matter of life and death for the countless migrants who are currently stranded at the border. The days of mutual understanding, when Presidents Vicente Fox Quesada and George W. Bush planned to take bilateral relations to such a level that the media called this shared vision «the century of the Americans,» seem a distant memory.
Today we live in even more complex times and great uncertainty for migrants. Tonatiuh Guillen López himself, former commissioner of the National Migration Institute, highlights in one of his latest articles that Biden is building a soft wall. “It is a strategy that advances and meets its objective of containment, despite its high costs in the violation of the rights of people who cannot comply with their procedures or who effectively find irregular mobility unavoidable,” says Tonatiuh about how Biden, without any cost, is building this soft wall through migratory measures that punish and exclude those who attempt irregular migration (and it has been without the need to build a wall, to the envy of Donald Trump.)
As we have seen, bilateral relations build or complicate the development of public policies. In this sense, I highlight what we have done in Guanajuato. Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo delivered his fifth results report in which he highlighted the economic and demographic growth that Guanajuato has had in the last three decades. An example of this is the impulse that our region has given to the so-called «Gran Bajío» because, by joining this initiative of the business sector, the generation of projects and the attraction of investments have been facilitated. However, even though the bilateral relationship around migration is very complex, here we have tried to integrate migrants into this inertia of development. Just a few weeks ago, the governor visited Casa Guanajuato Dallas-Mexico, where he invited former governors of the last 30 years, who have been part of strengthening care for our migrants.
While governments continue to argue over who is more democratic, Elon Musk decided to come to Mexico to create thousands of jobs. These opportunities will help more Mexicans find the chance to grow on their land and not be forced to leave their families to search for the American dream.
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Juan Hernández is currently the secretary of migration and international liaison of the government of Guanajuato and collaborates for the newspaper El Sol del Bajío. This column was published with permission.
