President Obama took a direct shot at Donald Trump Friday by arguing that a constructive relationship with Mexico is much more effective than building a wall between the two countries.
“Mexico has been a consistent, strong partner with us” on the issue of illegal migration and combating drug trafficking, Obama said during a press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto Friday at the White House. “And if they had not been, we would have had much worse issues on the border.”
Mexico is working collaboratively with the United States and building a “healthy economy,” he said. Obama said that posture is “going to do a lot more to solve a migration crisis or a drug problem than a wall, and it will be much more reflective of the kind of relationship that we should have with our neighbors.”
Obama said Pena Nieto and his predecessor have been great partners throughout his presidency, and “where there have been differences and tensions, we have consistently tried to work through them in a consistent way.”
When it comes to securing the border, he said, most of the undocumented workers have come from Central America, not Mexico, which has worked hard to cooperate with the U.S. on border control.
“If it were not for the hard work of Mexico in trying to secure the border to the south and try to cooperate with us, we would have had much more significant problems,” he said. “Cooperation on that front has been absolutely critical in dealing with these issues in both a serious way and a humane way.”
On drug trafficking interdiction, he said “we have seen progress in some areas, both in the flow of drugs north and the flow of guns and illicit funding south.”
“We’re not going to be able to solve this problem by ourselves – Mexico is going to have to cooperate to rid itself from the violence … of the drug trade,” he said. “And the more we can build these habits of cooperation and ingrain them in [both governments’] agencies, the better off we’re going to be.”
