Donald Trump launched another attack on Mexico on Monday – this time accusing Mexicans of being responsible for “tremendous infectious disease … pouring across the border”.

The would-be president and billionaire businessman, who has already branded Mexican immigrants to the US as criminals, drug dealers and rapists, accused the Mexican government of “forcing their most unwanted people into the United States” which has become a “dumping ground for Mexico”.

“The worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican government,” Trump said in a statement he released on Monday, which criticised the media for deliberately distorting his earlier remarks.

“The largest suppliers of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs are Mexican cartels that arrange to have Mexican immigrants trying to cross the borders and smuggle in the drugs. The border patrol knows this. Likewise, tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border. The United States has become a dumping ground for Mexico and, in fact, for many other parts of the world.”

Trump, who has lost several business deals as a result of his comments about Mexico, said his previous remarks – “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists” – could not have been “simpler or more accurately stated”.

“The Mexican government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc,” Trump said. “This was evident just this week when, as an example, a young woman in San Francisco was viciously killed by a five-time deported Mexican with a long criminal record, who was forced back into the United States because they didn’t want him in Mexico. This is merely one of thousands of similar incidents throughout the United States. In other words, the worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican government.”

Trump went on to accuse Mexico of wanting an open border with the US but only as “long as it’s a ONE WAY open border into the United States”. “Not only are they killing us at the border, but they are killing us on trade … and the country of Mexico is making billions of dollars in doing so”.

He attempted to temper his comments by saying that as well as the criminal immigrants, “many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it”.

“I am proud to say that I know many hard-working Mexicans – many of them are working for and with me … and, just like our country, my organization is better for it,” he said. “I have great respect for Mexico and I love their people and their people’s great spirit. The problem is, however, that their leaders are far smarter, more cunning, and better negotiators than ours.”

Trump said his message to citizens of the United States was that “the Mexican government is not our friend”.

Trump’s statement is full of highly questionable assertions, however, starting with the idea that immigrants are flowing unchecked over the Mexico border. Data from both the US and Mexican governments shows that net immigration has actually been steadily falling in recent years.



The idea that the Mexican government is “forcing their most unwanted people into the United States” also seems to have little basis in reality: in the past year a crackdown by Mexican forces has dramatically reduced the flow of migrants into the US.

Meanwhile, migration experts often stress that the migrants prepared to take the considerable risks of heading north tend to be among the most determined, hard-working and ambitious family members.

Nor is there much evidence to back Trump’s assertion that the Mexican government wants a one-way border into the United States. President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government is frequently criticized in Mexico for doing very little to push for a relaxation of the border or lobby for the rights of Mexican immigrants. The only major migration-related initiative attributed to the government in an effort to achieve such goals is the allegation that it is cracking down on Central American migrants in transit through Mexico in order to get privileges for Mexicans.

Trump said he “lost a lot during the presidential run defending the people of the United States” including deals with department store Macy’s, NBC, Univision and a host of other TV networks and sports organisations including Nascar. “Macy’s, NBC, Serta and Nascar have all taken the weak and very sad position of being politically correct even though they are wrong in terms of what is good for our country,” he said.

This past weekend, the former Apprentice star said that while the outcry may have hurt him financially, his open criticism was helping his cause as voters agreed with him. “I believe in punching back. You know I don’t think they’ve [the media] treated me fairly,” he said on Fox News Sunday. “A while ago they said he’s never going to run, he’s never going to run.

“Then I ran. Then they said, ‘He’s never going to file his papers.’ Then I filed my papers. Now they don’t know what to say. Now, all of the sudden, I get these really big poll numbers. And, they’re really good. Although I think they’re going to go higher because I really think people agree with what I say about the border and just agree with me, period.”

In several recent polls Trump was behind only Jeb Bush in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.