President Trump made stemming the flow of illegal aliens from Mexico into the U.S. a center point of his 2016 presidential campaign.
With the coronavirus beginning to spread across America, some are taking the opportunity to taunt the president in Spanish.
“There are more coronavirus patients in the USA than in Mexico. I will assume that the wall is to protect Mexicans!” one woman wrote in Spanish on Twitter.
Hay más pacientes de coronavirus en USA que en México. Asumiré que el muro es para proteger a los mexicanos!
— malvarad (@malvarad00) March 10, 2020
“As there are more cases of coronavirus in the USA than in @mexico Mexicans should build the wall and pay for it @realDonaldTrump,” wrote another.
Como hay más casos de coronavirus en USA que en @mexico los mexicanos deberían construir el muro y que lo pague @realDonaldTrump
— GerardoGRamos💪 (@GerardoGRamos) March 12, 2020
“At this rate the wall is done by Mexico due to the number of positive cases of coronavirus in the USA,” another tweeted.
A este ritmo el muro lo hace Mexico por la cantidad de casos positivos de coronavirus en Usa
— quino (@joako_92) March 12, 2020
While there are 3,244 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., there are just 41 in Mexico, according to a running tabulation by Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Meanwhile, Mexico is reportedly mulling measures it may take with its northern border over fears that coronavirus will spread from the U.S., health officials said on Friday. Mexico’s deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said contagion from the United States is a threat, Reuters reported.
“Mexico wouldn’t bring the virus to the United States, rather the United States would bring it here,” he said at a news conference on Friday. “The possible flow of coronavirus would come from the north to the south.”
“If it were technically necessary, we would consider mechanisms of restriction or stronger surveillance,” he said.
Trump, though, has barred incoming foreigners from Europe and elsewhere in Asia, and he contends the virus strengthens his argument that a wall is needed to secure the U.S. southern border.
“To this point, and because we have had a very strong border policy, we have had 40 deaths related to Coronavirus. If we had weak or open borders, that number would be many times higher!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Friday.
The United States ambassador to Mexico added that a new policy would be mutually beneficial to both the U.S. and Mexico, Reuters wrote.
“For both countries, it doesn’t benefit us to have completely open borders,” ambassador Christopher Landau said. “We see it now with the virus, and hopefully we can work closely together because in health issues, political parties and borders aren’t important.”
“The United States has now declared a state of emergency and most cities are restricting movement, closing schools, banning gatherings of more than 100 – 250 people, and encouraging residents to ‘self-quarantine’ or practice ‘social distancing’ in order to slow the spread of coronavirus,” The Daily Wire reported on Sunday.
The U.S. joined France, Spain, and Italy Saturday in imposing lockdowns, though the U.S. has yet to move toward aggressive enforcement of self-quarantine. Italy, particularly, has mobilized law enforcement to ensure people remain indoors amid concerns that Italians, despite huge jumps in confirmed cases and a health care system clearly under seige, are still not obeying “social distancing” orders.
Mexico has yet to implement any concrete policies on the subject, but several major events, like the Guadalajara Film Festival, have been canceled, and the Tecnologico de Monterrey university has canceled classes. The government is encouraging organizations to suspend “non-essential services.”