Amid a racially charged national debate on immigration, a former real estate tycoon-turned-president signs an executive order to stop some foreign migrants entering his country and to deport foreign residents with criminal records.

There is even talk of building a border wall, while intemperate language prompts a backlash from a neighbouring country.



But this is not Donald Trump’s America and the wall is not intended to exclude Mexicans.

At the other end of the Americas, Argentina’s millionaire president Mauricio Macri triggered a diplomatic spat with regional neighbours this week after he signed a controversial order to rein in migration.

Macri’s centre-right government has said that the immigration order is intended to fight the rising wave of drug-related crime, which it claims is partly due to an influx of migrants from Argentina’s northern neighbours.

“Peruvian and Paraguayan citizens come here and end up killing each other for control of the drug trade,” said Macri’s security minister Patricia Bullrich this week. “A lot of Paraguayans, Bolivians and Peruvians get involved as either capitalists or mules, as drivers or as part of the drug trafficking chain.”

The minister’s words provoked a swift and angry reaction from Bolivia. “We have to reject this kind of stigmatization against our compatriots that coincides with Trump’s xenophobic attitude,” responded Bolivian government minister Carlos Romero.

Bolivia’s indigenous president Evo Morales also protested the move, writing on Twitter: “We can’t be following the example of the north and its policies, building walls to divide us.”

“Macri is intent on copying Trump’s agenda,” said former legislator and

human rights lawyer Myriam Bregman of the Socialist Workers’ party. “They’re trying to associate immigration with crime.

“While they persecute poor people in the slums because of the colour of

their face or their nationality, major crime involving drug trafficking

continues to be run by government officials and corrupt police,” she added.

Immigration from Argentina’s northern neighbours – where the vast majority of the population is either mestizo or indigenous – has always been a source of racial tension in a country where around 79% of the population is descended from European immigrants.

As in the US, migrants in Argentina tend to work in construction or other low-paying jobs; activists say that they often take jobs that Argentinians are unwilling to take.

This did not stop one Argentinian congressman from proposing a wall along the border with Bolivia to block the flow of migrants.

“We have to build a wall,” said legislator Alfredo Olmedo of the northern

province of Salta, which borders with Bolivia. “I agree 100% with Trump.”

Macri’s new immigration order, which was made public on Monday, prohibits the entry into Argentina of foreign citizens with criminal convictions and speeds up the deportation of foreigners accused of breaking the law, even if they haven’t been convicted for some cases.

The order claims that 21.35% of Argentina’s prison population are foreigners, but that percentage only applies to federal prisoners. Ministry of Justice figures for 2014 (the most recent available) show that non-Argentinians make up only 5.78% of the total number of prisoners held in the country, including in provincial jails.

Bolivia’s foreign ministry quickly retaliated with a statement rejecting “unfounded affirmations that do not contribute to the fight against discrimination and xenophobia in our countries”.



One Bolivian legislator lashed out personally at Argentina’s first lady, Juliana Awada, who owns a prominent clothing firm. In the past, press reports have claimed that Awada employed undocumented Bolivian workers in her apparel workshops – a charge she denies.

“What will Macri’s wife do without Bolivians in her workshops?” asked the president of the senate, José Alberto Gonzáles. “Before thinking of walls, think of your economy.”