Former Mexican President: ‘We Shouldn’t Have a Border’ at All

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said “we shouldn’t have a border” between the U.S. and Mexico because “God didn’t create borders,” during an interview Thursday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

Fox, who served as Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, debated immigration and border security policies with host Laura Ingraham. The two discussed details of the White House’s new immigration proposal, which includes amnesty for 1.8 million illegal immigrants in exchange for border wall funding, an end to the visa lottery, and major revisions to chain migration.

Following that discussion, Ingraham asked Fox, a highly visible and vocal critic of President Donald Trump, if the U.S. should have any borders at all with Mexico.

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“Should we have any border with Mexico at this point? Do we need a border, really?” Ingraham asked.

Although Fox admitted “there is no choice” but to have a border,” he said he would prefer not to have any borders between the U.S. and Mexico.

“God didn’t create borders. We shouldn’t have a border,” Fox said. Many advocates of tougher U.S. border enforcement have long contended supporters of increased immigration to this country, especially from Mexico, ultimately hope to remove national boundaries.

Trump offered to give amnesty through a lengthy process to an estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants who qualified under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program if Congress would agree to fund the border wall and tackle other immigration enforcement and border security priorities.

The news of the proposed amnesty increase from 800,000 to 1.8 million alarmed many advocates of stronger immigration law enforcement.

Although Fox approved of the White House’s new offer of amnesty for 1.8 million illegal immigrants, he told Ingraham that “it doesn’t make me happy because to exchange one young ‘dreaming’ person … for one dollar, I would not exchange it.”

“I hope [Trump] gains credibility, because everybody doubts that will happen,” Fox said. “So that makes me happy because then Mexico is not going to pay for [the wall]. So U.S. Congress and taxpayers are going to pay for that wall.”

But Ingraham pressed Fox about his country’s issues, saying, “You do understand that Mexico has a problem keeping her own people in her own country, satisfying their economic needs?”

“Yes, for the moment,” Fox replied.

Ingraham noted that Mexico also failed to satisfy its citizens’ needs “to be safe from criminals” in their own country.

“So they flee your country and come to our country,” Ingraham said. “Why can’t you keep your own people happy in your own country? Are you going to blame Trump for that, too?”

Fox argued that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — which resulted in a $64 billion trade deficit for the U.S. with Mexico — was created to bring wealth and jobs into his country at the United States’ expense “so that migration would be reduced and alleviated.”

Related: Trump Puts Citizenship for 1.8 Million Illegals on DACA Table

“So why are we still getting so many immigrants?” Ingraham asked.

Fox didn’t have a direct answer for that question, prompting Ingraham to shift from discussing NAFTA and instead turn to discussing Fox’s own presidential record and his hypocrisy when it came to dealing with immigrants to Mexico.

“Let me go back to what Newsweek said about you when you were president. This was back in 2006,” Ingraham said. “‘Vicente Fox has spent the past five years urging the United States to upgrade the status of millions of illegals from Mexico. Meanwhile, his own government has given legal status to only 15,000 foreigners without papers.'”

The former Mexican president insisted that Mexicans who illegally entered the U.S. are his “heroes.”

“You deported 140,000 in 2003. You deported 120,000 in 2002. And from 2002 to 2006, the number of detainments and deportations was up 74 percent,” Ingraham said. “So you’re trashing the United States for deporting Mexicans and other people from our country … and meanwhile you were deporting plenty of people and you had … problems with the way immigrants were treated in the early part, especially, of your tenure?”

Although he admitted these facts were true because Mexico “didn’t have the capacity” to deal with immigrants,” the former Mexican president insisted Mexicans who illegally entered the U.S. are his “heroes.”

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.