4 reasons Mexico hates Trump's border wall

Daniel González | The Arizona Republic

Show Caption Hide Caption Mexico's president says Mexico will not pay for Trump's wall Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto is again saying his country will not pay for a wall after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to build the wall along the U.S. Mexico border. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland).

PHOENIX — President Trump on Wednesday signed executive actions ordering construction of a border wall with Mexico, and ramping up deportations, fulfilling two of his signature campaign promises.

Within hours, Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, abruptly canceled a meeting with Trump scheduled for Tuesday after reiterating there was no way that Mexico will pay for the wall, despite Trump's vow to the contrary.

Trump’s executive orders have sparked protests in the United States and in Mexico. Here are four reasons why Mexicans hate Trump’s border wall.

1. A fence is not the same as a wall

Mexico and the United States share a border that is nearly 2,000 miles long. Until recently, a wall existed along several parts of the border, including Nogales.

The old wall was built from military-surplus metal landing mats and was easy to cut through. It also was easy to climb over. In 2011, construction crews ripped out the old, rusting landing mats and replaced them with bollard-style fencing. The new fencing is higher, and is capped by a 5-foot south-facing metal sheet, making it more difficult to climb over. It also extends 5 feet into the ground, making it harder to burrow under.

Border Patrol agents prefer the new fencing. It allows agents to see what is happening on the other side, making it harder for smugglers to hide. It also reduces the chances of agents being hit by "rock throwers," a common problem.

"You can look through and see that no one is over there, or what's going to come at you in the next few seconds," Border Patrol Agent Eric Cantu told the Nogales International in 2011.

The see-through fencing also was welcomed by Mexicans. It restored the feeling that Mexico and the United States are neighbors, not enemies. That is why there was not the same outcry when the U.S. completed 720 miles of new fencing along the border in 2011, says Marco Lopez. He was mayor of Nogales, Ariz., from 2001 to 2003 and chief of staff of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, from January 2009 to September 2011 when the fencing was being installed.

"It was not as offensive," he said.

Trump's border-wall plan sends the opposite message. After all, nothing says "stay out" better than a wall.

2. It reminds Mexicans they lost half of their country to the U.S.

Americans often forget that a large part of the United States once belonged to Mexico. But most Mexicans are keenly aware that the United States, eager to expand West, invaded Mexico and the two countries fought a war from 1846 to 1848.

When it was over, Mexico lost half its territory to the United States, including the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. The war followed the U.S. annexation of Texas.

"I don't think Mexicans wake up every morning and think about that," said Francisco Lara-Valencia, a Mexico-born professor at Arizona State University's School of Transborder Studies.

Still, he sees evidence that Trump's plan to wall off the entire border is stirring nationalist feelings in Mexico, which led to Peña Nieto's decision Thursday to cancel his meeting next week with Trump.

"Obviously, there is a strong nationalist sentiment among many Mexicans, and (Trump's executive order to begin building a border wall) simply reminds Mexicans of the complicated relations that Mexico has had with the U.S., including the war ... and the many other tensions" since then.

3. It's a slap in the face to Mexicans working in the U.S.

Peek inside the kitchen of almost any restaurant in America, no matter what type of food is being served, and you probably will find Mexicans, along with Central Americans, doing much of the cooking and cleaning.

Every restaurant in America would "shut down" if the U.S. deported them all, chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain has said. The same would happen to the U.S. agriculture industry, Darin Dykstra, owner of a 3,000-cow dairy farm in northwest Iowa, said in a 2015 interview.

"Americans just don't want to do the work," he said. "If you are going to take the labor supply away in agriculture, dairy particularly, it's going to fall apart."

Which is why Mexican workers such as Rosalva Hernandez feel insulted when Trump talks about building a border wall. The Mexican immigrant, who came illegally but is now a legal resident, has milked cows on a dairy farm in northwest Iowa for more than 13 years. She has had teeth kicked out and a finger broken while milking cows.

"When I started working here, a year after, I got pregnant," Hernandez said. "I worked my nine entire months in here ... doing everything. In the middle of the night, next day, I had my baby. Twenty days later, I was back at work. Who would do that? No one."

As for Trump and anyone else who thinks Mexicans are bad, "they are not bad," she said, adding, "And I bet they cannot come in here and do one hour milking cows."

4. It implies only Mexico has benefited from trade agreements

While some Americans complain about Mexican immigrants importing their language and culture to the U.S., Mexicans often lament the same about the United States' influence in their country.

In the two decades since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, American businesses have proliferated in Mexico. There are now at least 402 McDonald's restaurants in Mexico, according to data collected by the Guardian. Need a Starbucks fix? Mexico now has more than 500 stores, according to the company's website. More than 4 million Mexicans shop daily at Walmart, which in December announced plans to invest $1.3 billion to build more stores in Mexico, according to Fox News.

To Mexicans, however, Trump's border wall implies the United States has not benefited from NAFTA, said Lopez, who now runs a consulting firm, Intermestic Partners, that helps American businesses invest in Mexico and vice versa. In reality, 14 million jobs in the United States are tied to trade, commerce and investment with Mexico, including about 110,000 jobs in Arizona, he said.

"That is the biggest frustration" Lopez hears when he travels to Mexico. "When they see the wall," Lopez said, "it implies that there is no benefit or that there is no positive impact from their relationship with their southern neighbor."

Follow Daniel González on Twitter: @azdangonzalez