Mexico City (EFE).- The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked this Monday not to vote for Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States, before the new anti-immigrant law that came into force last Saturday in Florida, a state he governs.
“We are against the immigration reform of DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who is against immigrants, not a vote for DeSantis, he who does not love his country does not want his mother, not a vote for those who despise migrants,” said the Mexican president in his daily press conference.
López Obrador referred to Law SB 1718 in Florida, promoted by DeSantis, which establishes restrictions on undocumented immigrants and that could generate discrimination based on “racial profiling” that affects other people.
The new regulation requires companies with more than 25 employees to use a program to verify the immigration status of each one and makes traveling in a car across state lines with an undocumented person a felony punishable by up to 15 years. from prison.
The law also makes it difficult for the undocumented to access medical care and ignores driver’s licenses issued by other states to people without legal immigration status.
“We cannot remain silent, if the United States is a great nation it is because of the migrants. And he is for the wall and for the mistreatment of migrants, he aspires to be a candidate for the presidency for the Republican party, ”said López Obrador.
Florida anti-immigrant law, new chapter of US-Mexico tension
The reform of DeSantis, who appears second in the Republican Party polls, only behind former President Donald Trump, opens a new front between Mexico and the United States, whose presidential elections will coincide next year for the first time since 2012.
The Mexican ruler accused DeSantis and other Republicans of enacting anti-immigrant reforms only for “electoral” purposes.
“Only for political, electoral purposes, for wanting to look good by deceiving that immigrants are the ones who cause misery in the United States, all of which is false, they dare to make these reforms on the eve of the elections,” he said.
The president promised to continue defending migrants in the United States, where close to 38 million people of Mexican origin live.
“You have to protect them, and you have to review the Bible, how it was recommended to treat foreigners well, migrants have to be respected and they go to the United States to work and look for an honest life, they are not thugs,” he concluded.