This article has been updated to provide more context for Obrador’s statement.
A Mexican presidential candidate has called mass migration to the United States a “human right.”
According to a report from Eluniversal, candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said that migrants fleeing to the United States would be “a human right we will defend.”
“Soon, very soon, after the victory of our movement, we will defend migrants all over the American continent and the migrants of the world who, by necessity, must abandon their towns to find life in the United States; it’s a human right we will defend,” he said.
The election stands less than two weeks away and Obrador is currently the frontrunner. He has run on a ticket opposing President Trump’s policies toward Mexico. From the New York Times:
After 18 years of trying, and trying again, Mr. López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, may have a historic opportunity. He has said that his presidency will signal the start of Mexico’s fourth revolution, following independence from Spain in the early 19th century, the liberal reforms later that century, and the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century.
He promises an austere, nationalist government that will fight corruption and inequality. He has said he will push constitutional amendments to change Mexico’s energy policy, eliminate immunity for government employees and allow for mechanisms of direct democracy, such as presidential referendums. He has repeatedly compared himself to Mexican leaders like Benito Juárez, Francisco Madero and Lázaro Cárdenas, which is like an American candidate comparing himself to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Clarification: Reports indicate that Obrador’s words were mistranslated by initial sources. The full quote has been provided and the article revised to reflect his full intent.