How Mexico Hopes to Stop Trump From Winning

Consulates are hosting free workshops across the US
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2016 3:40 PM CDT
How Mexico Hopes to Stop Trump From Winning
In this March 7, 2016, photo, Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Concord, NC.   (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

As Donald Trump talks about building a "big beautiful wall" on the southern US border, Mexico is apparently hatching plans to prevent a Trump presidency. While Mexico officially refuses to interfere in the election, Mexican diplomats in the US are helping Mexican permanent residents fast-track to US citizenship by hosting free workshops at consulates across the country, Bloomberg reports. These newly minted citizens have the right to vote but aren't pressed to do so, says Laura Espinosa, deputy consul in Mexico’s consulate in Las Vegas. "Those who use this to vote, that’s up to each individual," she says. "We don’t have any opinion on that, because that would be totally interfering in internal affairs of the country." A consulate spokesman in Chicago stresses that while the consulate there hosted such an event, it's community organizations that actually dole out advice.

More than 2.6 million legal Mexican permanent residents in the US are eligible to become citizens, and naturalization is especially high in Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia, per the New Americans Campaign. But the movement isn't limited to people of Mexican origin: Several Latino immigration and labor groups are also coming together under a "Stand Up to Hate" campaign to promote naturalization of immigrants and inspire voting, NBC News reports. "I've had my residency papers for 19 years, but one of the main reasons I'm becoming a citizen now is because I want to vote against Donald Trump," says a Cuban exile at a Miami workshop. "He offends me because he is insulting all Hispanics and what he is doing is wrong." (John Oliver offers an alternative to Trump's wall.)

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