NAFTA has also made Mexico’s economy heavily reliant on the United States, with millions of jobs in Mexico linked to the trade deal. If NAFTA were to be terminated, it could be devastating to Mexico, and this is one of Peña Nieto’s biggest fears. That was clear on Wednesday as he emphasized all the ways that NAFTA has been good for both the United States and Mexico. “Our country buys more from the United States than Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, and the U.K. together,” he said Wednesday through a translator. “A lot of jobs in the manufacturing industry in the U.S. were not moved to other areas of the world precisely because, together, we have developed a manufacturing platform competitively in the North American continent .” Highlighting all the mutual benefits of NAFTA was likely one of the key messages Peña Nieto had for Trump during their private meeting in Mexico’s presidential palace.

There’s another, less obvious way that Trump could inflict serious damage on the Mexican economy. He could fulfill his promise to deport all the 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States, a large number of whom are from Mexico. Immigrants—those working legally and illegally in the United States—send billions of dollars to relatives in Mexico each year. These remittances added up to $24.8 billion in 2015, surpassing oil exports as the largest source of foreign revenue for Mexico.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States if he becomes president. However, in a speech on Wednesday night in Arizona, he scaled back his previous calls to deport all of them, saying he would prioritize removing undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes and those who overstayed their visas. Still, that is about half of the undocumented population, according to estimates by The Washington Post.

Why should Trump care if Mexico’s economy suffers? If for no other reason, the financial turmoil would surely send new waves of illegal immigration to the United States, and Trump has made it clear how much he would hate that.

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