A week after the election of President-Elect Donald Trump the government of Mexico directed its embassy and consulates in the United States to make further efforts to protect Mexican immigrants.
These efforts include a 24-hour hotline for immigrants to report harassment and immigration raids, along with expansion of deportation-defense work conducted at 50 consulates.
Other plans include allowing Mexicans in the U.S. to acquire Mexican identity documents and to step-up registering as citizens of Mexico those children who were born in the U.S. to Mexican nationals.
Referring directly to jurisdictions that have declared themselves “sanctuary cities,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry also pledged to “strengthen dialogue with state and local authorities” in this country.
The ministry pointed out that while immigration laws are enforced by the federal government, it is “local policies that determine, to a large extent, the daily lives of Mexicans in the U.S.”
Foreign Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu resorted to in an Internet video to tell the immigrants, “The government of President Enrique Peña Nieto and all Mexicans are with you. We are going to be closer than ever.”
During the Obama Administration several federal departments and agencies have signed agreements with the government of Mexico to protect the rights and interests of Mexican immigrants.
In September the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division entered into such an agreement to help the Mexican government inform their citizens in the U.S. about their employment rights and provide them with resources to protect those rights. The department also promised to make sure that U.S. employers are aware of those rights as well.
Entering into similar agreements with the government of Mexico in recent years were the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage & Hour Division, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Labor Relations Board.