US President Donald Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops at the southern border was slammed by Mexican politicians on Thursday as a populist ploy and an unjustified lack of respect.

Mexico's right- and left-wing lawmakers put aside their differences in condemning Trump's border policy, including President Enrique Pena Nieto and the two leading candidates in the country's July presidential race.

Read more: Cards Against Humanity takes on Trump's border wall

The White House on Tuesday said it was seeking to mobilize the National Guard to the Mexican border in an effort to curb illegal immigration and combat drug crime, both of which it claimed remained at "unacceptable" levels. On Wednesday, Trump said he intended to move up to 4,000 troops to the border.

Watch video 00:52 Share The harrowing journey of a smuggled migrant Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2h75I Migrant smuggling: A harrowing journey in hopes of a better life often ends in death

Nieto said the deployment of National Guard troops reflected "threatening attitudes and a lack of respect" from the White House, adding that the US president was jeopardizing the countries' relationship to score points with his base.

"If your recent statements are caused by your frustration over internal political matters, your laws or your Congress, take it up with them, not the Mexican people," the Mexican President said in a national address. "We are not going to allow negative rhetoric to define our actions."

Nieto's remarks were echoed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist front-runner in Mexico's upcoming presidential vote, who said the deployment of US troops at the border was a political ploy based on misinformation. "He's using all this campaign against Mexico as propaganda, that is the only way I can explain that he's trying to send military forces to the border," Obrador said during a campaign rally on Thursday in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo.

Cooperation on ice

Following Trump's National Guard order, Mexico's Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday calling on the government to retaliate by suspending joint efforts with the US to tackle illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

Ricardo Anaya, the second-place presidential candidate who heads a right-left coalition, went further, calling on the government to halt all joint anti-terrorism efforts until US troops withdrew from the shared border.

Read more: The war on drugs: Pena Nieto's Herculean task

"You cannot negotiate or cooperate with threats," Anaya said. "We must make it clear to President Trump that Mexico and the United States can continue to have a profitable relationship, of mutual benefit, or move into a confrontational relationship, where we all lose."

More border troops

Trump on Thursday said he intended to send up thousands of National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border to help local officials fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Troops are not intended to be involved in enforcement, however.

The President said that "we'll probably keep them or a large portion of them until the wall is built," referring to his promised wall along the US' southern border. Political roadblocks concerning the wall's funding, however, indicate that troops could remain stationed at the Mexico border for a significant amount of time.

Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday that the situation along the border had reached "a crisis point" and that the White House was forced to act.

Figures show that the arrests along the Mexico border jumped to 50,308 in March — a 37 percent increase from February and more than triple the same period last year. The rate of arrests along the southern border has risen during 10 of the last 11 months.

Films about the US-Mexican border John Wayne at war The US and Mexico went to war in the mid-19th century over the state of Texas, which had belonged to Mexico but was then annexed by the US. This long-running border dispute was often portrayed by Hollywood in westerns that detailed violent skirmishes between American settlers and the Mexican army. Among the most spectacular was "Alamo" (1960), starring John Wayne and Richard Widmark.

Films about the US-Mexican border Dietrich and the border In 1958, Marlene Dietrich made an impressive guest appearance in the brilliant frontier thriller "Touch of Evil." Director Orson Welles, who played a lead role in the film, made the border region between Mexico and the US the scene of corruption, drug trafficking and crime.

Films about the US-Mexican border The Rio Grande When John Wayne appeared in "Alamo," the great era of the American western was almost over. But when the genre boomed in the 1950s, many westerns were set in the borderland between the US states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on one side and Mexico on the other. A symbolic landmark was the border river, the Rio Grande, namesake for director John Ford's legendary western from 1950.

Films about the US-Mexican border The border in later westerns However, the border between the two countries managed to retain its prominence in numerous later westerns. The region played an especially prominent role in Sam Peckinpah's "Wild Bunch" (1969), a blood-soaked wild west epic that tells of lawlessness in a forgotten land.

Films about the US-Mexican border Modern variations The American director Robert Anthony Rodriguez has a passion for the border region, which is perhaps due to his Mexican roots. Many of his films play with the collision of cultures in this borderland. His 1996 film "From Dusk Till Dawn," for example, saw Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney play bank robbing brothers who hightail it to the Mexican border.

Films about the US-Mexican border No place to grow old "No Country for Old Men," the 2007 Oscar-winning film directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, is about drugs, mafia, murder, and fraud. It also plays out in a dangerous place where death is common and few grow old - at the US-Mexican border.

Films about the US-Mexican border South of Albuquerque Albuquerque in New Mexico is the setting for the immensely popular TV series "Breaking Bad," which was produced between 2008 and 2013. The series again repeats the theme of so many stories that are situated in the region: drugs. And so, not far away, a short distance south of Albuquerque, lies the legendary border.

Films about the US-Mexican border The dark side of trade If a movie is titled "Trade," then it's probably either a comedy or a drama. The Bavarian director Marco Kreuzpaintner picked for his 2007 drama, telling the story of Mexican children who cross the border to the US as part of human sex slave trafficking. Hollywood star Kevin Kline played the lead role.

Films about the US-Mexican border Drug wars at the border "Sicario" examines the impact of the drug wars on the border area between Arizona and Mexico. Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve made the fast-paced drug thriller in 2015 with Benicio del Toro in the lead. It was filmed in southern Arizona.

Films about the US-Mexican border Narcotic attraction The issue of cross-border drug dealing seems to have a magical pull on directors. British Hollywood filmmaker Ridley Scott tried his hand in 2013 with a thriller from the border region. "The Counselor," starring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender, was filmed in El Paso, Texas and in Spain.

Films about the US-Mexican border Crime and politics It was director Steven Soderbergh who rang in the era of drug war films 17 years ago. In "Traffic," he portrays the complex relationship between the police, drug gangs, politicians and authorities - whose ties to each other are all inextricably interwoven across the border.

Films about the US-Mexican border Detective stories at the border In addition to westerns and drug thrillers, numerous detective stories and murder mysteries have been set at the US-Mexican border. A classic from the genre is Robert Altman's 1973 film "The Long Goodbye," based on a novel by Raymond Chandler. The film was shot in California, but also in Tepoztlán in Mexico.

Films about the US-Mexican border The border in times of globalization Star Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu filmed the multiple narrative drama "Babel" in 2006. It traces the interlaced fates of various people from different regions in the world. "Babel" is a cinematic parable about the question of what the border means to people in times of globalization.

Films about the US-Mexican border Border comedy There isn't much to laugh about at the border. Most of the films that deal with US-Mexican ties tend to be serious. But in 2004, James L. Brooks made the comedy "Spanglish" about a cliché encounter between a wealthy American (Adam Sandler) and a Mexican house cleaner (Paz Vega).

Films about the US-Mexican border Immigration drama In recent years, more and more films have been made about immigration and poverty in the region. Last year, the German-French-Mexican co-production "Soy Nero" premiered at the Berlinale film festival. Director Rafi Pitts, with roots in Iran, tells the story of a young Mexican who crosses the border to the US in search of a better life.

Films about the US-Mexican border A modern classic Perhaps the most impressive film about South-to-North migration was made by Cary Fukunaga in 2009. "Sin Nombre" portrays the fate of several young people from Mexico who are trying to make it to the US. While some are trying to escape criminal gangs from their hometowns, others are hoping for heaven on earth. Author: Jochen Kürten (kbm, sb)



dm/bw (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.