44.4% of Mexicans believe that the government should immediately expel irregular migrants, an increase of almost 17 percentage points compared to October 2018, according to a survey by El Universal published on Wednesday.
Animosity towards migrants has grown since October of last year, when the phenomenon of caravans – most of them made up of Central Americans – that seek to cross Mexico and reach the United States and travel in large groups began. .
At that time, only 27.6% of Mexicans believed that these people should be expelled immediately, a percentage that increased to 41.2% in April and up to 44.4% in June.
In October, 48.8% of respondents felt that migrants should remain at liberty while it was determined whether they could be refugees, but in June the figure dropped to 36.9%.
In the same way, only 9% of Mexicans consider that they should be allowed “free transit”, compared to 12.5% ​​in October.
And meanwhile, the proportion of citizens who believe that migrants should be imprisoned for “transgressing Mexican laws” has risen slightly, from 4.4% in October to 5.2% in June.
The survey was conducted from June 3 to 7 in the middle of a diplomatic clash with the United States after the threat of tariff measures as punishment for not stopping migratory flows, a decision that was finally postponed after reaching an agreement.
In this context, 91.5% of Mexicans thought that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador should ask the Administration of the United States to “stop verbally attacking the Government and the Mexicans.”
47.3% considered that Trump will comply with its tariff threat if Mexico does not slow down migration.
In addition, only 14.4% of Mexicans consider that the nation should not respond with tariffs to Trump’s levies, while 57.3% say that it should do so to achieve “equality of circumstances” and 26% that it should only Use this resource as a “measure to negotiate.”
Before a possible diplomatic clash with the northern neighbor, Mexico’s main partner, 60.4% inclined to expel the migrants, 14.7% for starting a trade war and 24.9% did not answer the question.
In June, 56.8% of the respondents were “in disagreement” with the idea of ​​sheltering the undocumented, a percentage very different from that of October, when this refusal was only 37.8% and less than those who did. measure.
Finally, in June, 53.7% of respondents do not support that López Obrador gives work visas to migrants of other nationalities.
In all the questions, the remaining percentage corresponds to the answer “Do not know / Did not answer”.
The survey was conducted with 1,000 face-to-face interviews throughout the country. The confidence level is 95% and the margin of error is 3.1%.
This same Wednesday, López Obrador asked all Mexicans to act with “humanism” before migrants and made reference to how the Bible says that we must treat foreigners.
“No xenophobia, which means hatred for the foreigner, nor campaigns against migrants, that is neither human nor Christian,” he concluded. (EFE) .-
