MEXICO - Mexican Officials Arrest Suspect in Killing

NOTE:  This is from the e-newspaper, so no link to article.

"David López Jiménez accused in Jan. death of Tijuana photojournalist" by Wendy Fry, San Diego Union-Tribune  8/25/2022

Mexican federal authorities on Wednesday arrested David López Jiménez, who goes by the nickname “Cabo 20.”  He is accused of ordering the murder of Tijuana photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel.

Jiménez was taken into custody in the early morning in the eastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.  Baja California state Attorney General Ricardo Iván Carpio announced the arrest at a news conference.

“He is being detained as the intellectual author of the (murder) of photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel and other charges will be sought (against him),” Carpio said.  Martínez, who covered stories on security and crime in Tijuana, was fatally shot in front of his home on Jan. 17 as he left his home for work.

The arrest of the high-profile target comes just weeks before prosecutors are scheduled to present their case against three other defendants who are accused of carrying out the hit.

The prosecutor said Jiménez’s motive for ordering Martínez killed was that some photographs of Jiménez and his collaborators or family members “had been published in some news publications and social network and this caused (Jiménez) annoyance.” Carpio said Martínez happened to live in the same neighborhood where much of the criminal activity of Jiménez’s network took place, which made him vulnerable.

Carpio clarified Martínez had not been the one who published the photos that annoyed Jiménez.  The prosecutor also said one person participated in both the murder of Martínez and that of journalist Lourdes Maldonado, who was shot dead in her car in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Tijuana a week after Martínez was killed.

He said the suspect involved in both murders belongs to the same cartel as Jiménez, but stopped short of saying the two cases are connected.  He said the investigation into both murders is not yet complete.

Carpio said in addition to orchestrating the murder of a journalist, Jiménez was responsible for other street violence in Baja California.  Jiménez works with the Arellano Félix cartel, the prosecutor said.

“We are coordinating a prosecution strategy with the prosecutor’s office in the state of Nuevo León and the Republic to set a strategy that benefits the State (of Baja California).  We’re still analyzing and counting how many crimes” Jiménez will be charged with, Carpio said.

The Baja California prosecutor said Jiménez or “El Cabo 20” was trying to live under the radar in Nuevo León under a fake identity with false identification papers from Baja California Sur.

“Elements of the special forces from Sedena ([Mexico] Secretary of National Defense) and intelligence from the federal government and the Attorney General of Nuevo León participated.  Our intelligence identifies him as the main generator of violence and the person behind the disappearances of people in the city of Tijuana and in other cities,” said Carpio.

According to Mexico’s National Registry of Detentions, the arrest of “El Cabo 20” took place in the municipality of Apodaca, Nuevo León, on Avenida de la Concordia street in the Centro neighborhood, at 8:25 a.m. on Wednesday.  Carpio said there are still more people authorities are trying to arrest during the same operation, who are part of the same criminal group.

Jiménez had been arrested at least three times previously in Tijuana: in 2010 for robbery; in 2014 for vehicle theft, and in 2017 when he was captured during a criminal investigation about a large drug lab.  It remains unclear when he was released and if he was ever charged with the prior crimes.

CARTEL LAND - Mexico's Failed Capture

"Mexico failed to capture the son of ‘El Chapo.’ Can it contain drug cartels?" PBS NewsHour 10/18/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Mexico’s president defended his security forces Friday for releasing the son of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after they caught him, when members of the cartel opened fire and seized soldiers.  Analysts say the failed raid casts doubt on the Mexican government’s ability to contain drug violence.  Nick Schifrin reports on the significance for the U.S. fight against illegal narcotics.

BORDER BATTLE - Mexico

"Why Trump’s Mexico tariff idea is widely opposed" PBS NewsHour 5/31/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump has long praised the use of tariffs, but his new threat to Mexico took many people by surprise.  Trump said he will levy a 5 percent tariff on Mexican imports as of June 10 unless the country curbs immigration to the U.S.  The proposal drew widespread bipartisan criticism from lawmakers, who predicted U.S. consumers would bear its cost.  Yamiche Alcindor joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

"Why this former U.S. ambassador thinks Trump’s tariffs won’t achieve immigration goals" PBS NewsHour 5/31/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  This spring, around 100,000 migrants per month have been caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.  With a proposed 5 percent tariff on imports from Mexico, one of the largest U.S. trading partners, President Trump wants to leverage economic power to reduce that flow.  But will the strategy work?  Amna Nawaz talks to Ambassador John Feeley, a former U.S. envoy to Panama, for analysis.

GUILTY - Joaquin Guzman aka "El Chapo"

"The shocking violence that characterized the reign of ‘El Chapo’" PBS NewsHour 2/12/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After a trial lasting nearly three months, the Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, more widely known as “El Chapo,” was convicted Tuesday and now faces the possibility of life in prison.  Prosecutors said that during Guzman's reign, the Sinaloa Cartel became the largest and most prolific drug-trafficking operation in the world.  Nick Schifrin talks to Rolling Stone's Noah Hurowitz about the verdict.

TRUMP ANTI-IMMIGRATION - Asylum Seekers to be Kept in Mexico

"Trump administration says it will keep immigrants in Mexico throughout asylum process" PBS NewsHour 12/20/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Trump administration has announced it will keep asylum seekers in Mexico while they await the outcome of their cases.  It’s a way to block them from settling in the U.S. during the asylum process, which can take years.  Theresa Cardinal Brown of the Bipartisan Policy Center joins Amna Nawaz to discuss what we know and what we don't about how the administration might implement this change.

TRUMP TRADE WAR - Affect on American Farmers

"How Trump’s trade wars are affecting American farmers" PBS NewsHour 11/22/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Trump administration's tariffs against China and Mexico have sparked retaliation by both countries on American agriculture.  As a result, dairy producers have experienced a painful drop in demand, but many hope a promised $12 billion bailout will improve business in the long run.  Lisa Desjardins speaks to Jim Mulhern, head of the National Milk Producers Federation, for his perspective.

TRUMP TRADE - 'New' U.S.-Mexico-Canada Deal

"Trump touts ‘fairness and reciprocity’ of new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal" PBS NewsHour 10/1/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump declared victory on Monday on a deal more than a year in the making.  The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, largely keeps the structure of the 1994 North American Trade Agreement, but gives U.S. dairy farmers greater access to the Canadian market, add stipulations for the auto industry and increases certain protections.  Amna Nawaz reports.

"The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal offers modest changes.  Will it help the economy?" PBS NewsHour 10/1/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump made renegotiating NAFTA a priority of his administration.  What's really in the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and what does it mean for the U.S. economy?  Amna Nawaz learns more from Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations.

TRUMP AGENDA - 'New' NAFTA?

"Analyzing the tentative U.S.-Mexico trade deal, and the outlook for Canada to sign on" PBS NewsHour 8/28/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump has long criticized NAFTA, so it’s little surprise that he is pursuing an alternative trade deal with Mexico.  The tentative agreement reached this week contains provisions for keeping auto manufacturing in North America, ensures workers earn higher wages and addresses new industries.  But where do talks stand with Canada?  Judy Woodruff speaks with Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal.

"U.S. and Canada will keep talking after missing a trade deal deadline" PBS NewsHour 8/31/2018

aka "Canada Tells Trump FU to Trump Bulling"

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The United States and Canada failed to reach a new free trade agreement by a self-imposed deadline Friday.  Instead, President Trump announced he will sign a pact with Mexico in 90 days, and that Canada could still join it.  The Canadian foreign minister said she's confident they can get a deal.  Judy Woodruff learns more from Yamiche Alcindor.

TRUMP AGENDA - Kiss a Dictator's Ass, Trash Our Allies

While Trump bows and scrapes to Dictator Kim Jong Un, at home he......

"Trump steps up attacks on Canada, key ally and largest U.S. export market" PBS NewsHour 6/11/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After leaving the G-7 summit in Quebec early, President Trump withdrew from the group's joint statement on trade and blasted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "dishonest" for criticizing the U.S. tariffs and moving to retaliate.  As Lisa Desjardins reports, a key relationship for both sides is at risk.

"White House: Trump frustrated with lack of NAFTA progress with Canada" PBS NewsHour 6/11/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump has grown frustrated with Canada on a lack of progress in crafting a new NAFTA agreement, says Marc Short, director of legislative affairs for the Trump administration.  Short sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss reactions to the G-7 summit, the President’s focus on Canada and more.

"Trump cherry-picking tariff fights and uniting allies against U.S., analyst says" PBS NewsHour 6/11/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump came into office insisting that the U.S. wouldn't be taken advantage of, by allies or adversaries.  What do we learn from the most recent rancor at the G-7?  Judy Woodruff gets analysis on Trump’s trade complaints from Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group.

TRUMP AGENDA - Mexico/Amazon/Putin/Syria

#OurFakePresident

"Analyzing Trump’s statements on Mexico, Amazon, and Putin" PBS NewsHour 4/3/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The U.S. military may soon be guarding the nation's border with Mexico.  That's according to President Trump, who also warned he could tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement if the Mexican government doesn't cooperate.  Lisa Desjardins joins Judy Woodruff to discuss revelations and questions that came out of the President’s news conference.

"Trump, top U.S. general strike different tones on stabilizing post-ISIS Syria" PBS NewsHour 4/3/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump said Tuesday that the end is in sight for the U.S. military mission in Syria, yet military leaders have said the U.S. should remain until the Islamic State is wiped out.  American reinforcements have arrived in Manbij in recent days, a sign that they will remain a counterweight in the conflict.  John Yang talks to former USAID official Mona Yacoubian, and Amberin Zaman of Al Monitor.

TRUMP AGENDA - NAFTA; Farmers, Ranchers and Livelihood

"What the end of NAFTA would mean for farmers and ranchers" PBS NewsHour 3/26/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump's efforts to change the terms of NAFTA have divided farmers and ranchers, who depend, in different ways, on global trade.  Special correspondent Grant Gerlock of NET traveled around the state to hear their perspective on the ways the trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada affects their income and livelihoods.

MEXICO - The Hidden Cancun

"The Cancun that tourists don’t often see, soaring murders amid a bloody drug war" PBS NewsHour 1/11/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  It's not part of Cancun that tourists travel to see, heavily armed police working to stop a soaring homicide rate.  The fallout of Mexico's campaign targeting drug cartel leaders is spilling onto the periphery of the famous beach destination, where fractured gangs fight for control.  Yet the area's violence has rarely put vacationers in danger.  Special correspondent Danny Gold reports.

TRUMP AGENDA - Trump's Storm Troopers

NOTE:  It is not the ICE officers per say, it IS HOW they do the job.  IMHO being an illegal does NOT warrant being treated like a felon no matter what our prejudice law says.

"On the ground with ICE agents enforcing Trump’s immigration crackdown" PBS NewsHour 12/12/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Since President Trump took office, immigration arrests are up 42 percent, and arrests of undocumented immigrants who don't have criminal records are up 145 percent compared to last year.  The NewsHour's P.J. Tobia takes us along as ICE officers use the greater flexibility granted them under the Trump administration to crack down on immigrant communities, and how that's affecting families.

MEXICO QUAKE - Why?

"Why Mexico City is vulnerable to earthquakes" PBS NewsHour 9/20/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Tuesday’s earthquake was Mexico’s second in less than two weeks, bringing back memories of the country’s catastrophic 1985 earthquake that killed thousands.  What makes the region prone to earthquake damage?  Judy Woodruff asks seismologist Lucy Jones to explain the science.

TRUMP AGENDA - Wall Profits.... by Smugglers

"How smugglers stand to profit from Trump’s border wall" PBS NewsHour 9/20/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A reinforced border wall was President Trump's signature campaign promise, but following through may not deter drug and human smugglers with so much money at stake.  A new multimedia project by USA TODAY NETWORK called "The Wall" explores the complex reality of life on the border.  Daniel Gonzalez of The Arizona Republic sits down with William Brangham to discuss his reporting.

TRUMP AGENDA - Deport and Ignore Nationality

"Trump Plan: Deport to Mexico Immigrants Crossing Border Illegally, Regardless of Nationality" by Ginger Thompson and Marcelo Rochabrun, ProPublica 2/20/2017

The idea is part of a raft of immigration proposals signed by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that are likely to spur international and legal challenges.

This article was co-published with Univision. (Spanish)

Update, Feb.  21, 2017:
In a call with reporters Tuesday morning, DHS officials confirmed they were working on a plan to send migrants who had entered the United States from Mexico back to Mexico, even if they were not citizens of that country.

Buried deep in the Trump administration's plans to round up undocumented immigrants is a provision certain to enrage Mexico — new authority for federal agents to deport anyone caught crossing the southern border to Mexico, regardless of where they are from.

If present immigration trends continue, that could mean the United States would push hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Brazilians, Ecuadorans, even Haitians into Mexico.  Currently, such people are detained in the U.S. and allowed to request asylum.

President Trump wants them to do so from Mexico, communicating via videoconference calls with U.S. immigration officials from facilities that Mexico would presumably be forced to build.

“This would say if you want to make a claim for asylum or whatever we'll hear your case but you are going to wait in Mexico,” a DHS official said.  “Those are details that are being worked out both within the department and between the US government and the government of Mexico … there are elements that still need to be worked out in detail.

Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Mexico later this week to meet with representatives of the Mexican government.  It remains unclear if they will discuss this issue.

The new authority for immigration agents is among the dramatic, some would say untenable, tactics the Trump administration is preparing to deploy as it upends President Obama's policies on illegal immigration.

A pair of memos signed by John Kelly, the Homeland Security secretary, and publicly released on Tuesday outline the plans for what present and former government officials say will be a massive roundup of undocumented immigrants.  Near final drafts of the memos had leaked over the weekend and had been first reported by McClatchy.

Officials disclosed that two former Senate aides to Attorney General Jeff Sessions drafted the plan without input from career DHS policy staffers.  The ideas aren't new.  Many of the approaches described in the memos come from a 1996 law that policy makers and law enforcement agents had disregarded as either unenforceable or absurd.

“Most of these provisions of law have been there for decades,” the DHS official said.  “We are simply trying to execute what Congress has asked us to do.”

Among them was the Mexico part of the plan, for example, which calls for returning undocumented immigrants “to the foreign contiguous territory from which they arrived.”  The memo goes on to point out how foisting the immigrants onto Mexico would benefit DHS's budget, saying that it would, “save the Department's detention and adjudication resources for other priority aliens.”

However, former senior Mexican and American immigration officials said it could very well create new security problems along the border, as authorities in each country push unwanted migrants back and forth.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association said that the proposal would violate U.S. law and international treaty obligations.  Mexico is as likely to embrace the plan as it did the notion of paying for a wall.  “I would expect Mexico to respond with an emphatic 'No,'” said Gustavo Mohar, a former senior Mexican immigration and national security policy official.

Whether viable or not, the Trump administration's deportation plans mark a dramatic departure from decades of policy and practice.  Current and former immigration policy officials say that while the details of how the administration intends to carry out the plans remain unclear — if not insurmountable — the administration's overall message to enforcement agents across the country is clear: the limits have been lifted.

President Obama attempted to focus enforcement efforts on immigrants who had been convicted of serious crimes, and on those who were caught while or shortly after illegally entering the country.  Still, his administration deported record numbers of immigrants, most of whom had only been accused of minor crimes and immigration violations.

The Trump administration says it, too, is focused on deporting criminals, but it has redefined crimes to include any activity that might bring a conviction, including entering the U.S. without permission.  Effectively, that makes virtually everyone in the U.S. without a proper visa subject to roundup at their workplace or home.

“If you are present in the U.S. without being admitted or paroled or having overstayed your visa, the immigration laws of the U.S. subject you to removal,” the DHS official said.  “Everyone who is in violation of the laws is theoretically subject to enforcement.  The Department has limited resources and we will, to the extent that we can, focus on folks who have committed serious crimes.”

The only clear exception, according to the enforcement plan and the DHS briefing, is for immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children, known as Dreamers.

“Anyone who complained about Obama as the deporter-in-chief,” said David Martin, formerly DHS's principal deputy general counsel, “is unfortunately going to get a taste of what it's like when someone is really gung-ho.”

Greg Chen, the policy director at AILA, said the Trump plan would “effectively unleash a massive deportation force with extremely broad authority to use detention as the default mechanism for anyone suspected of violating immigration law.”

The question looming over the proposals is how many of them, with all their legal and logistical obstacles, will the President actually be able to carry out.

The memos, for example, authorize the Border Patrol to hire 5,000 new agents, even though the force has never been able to fill the slots it has already been allotted.  Some 60 percent of applicants to the Border Patrol fail the required polygraph, and those who pass take 18 months to get sent out into the field.

The Trump plan calls for the expansion of a George W. Bush-era program, known as 287g, which allows DHS to deputize state and local police as immigration agents.  It was touted after 9/11 as a critical “force-multiplier.”  But by 2010, some of the country's largest police departments were refusing to participate because they believed it would shatter the trust between their officers and the communities they were sworn to protect.  Meanwhile, participating agencies, which foot the bill for the program, were suddenly saddled with new debts and hounded by accusations of racial profiling and other abuse, forcing the Obama administration to suspend expansion of the program.

Until now, the enforcement of summary deportation laws, known as “expedited removal,” have been limited to those apprehended within 14 days of illegally entering the country and within 100 miles of Canada or Mexico.  The memos signed by Kelly would allow use of those laws anywhere in the country against anyone who entered illegally within the past two years.

Lucas Guttentag, a former DHS adviser and Stanford law professor, said this would “unleash chaos,” violate due process, and meet challenges in court, similar to those that scuttled the administration's travel ban.

There would also be aggressive challenges, lawyers said, to plans that would allow immigration agents to deport unaccompanied minor children who crossed the border illegally, rather than uniting them with parents or other relatives in the U.S.

The reason for discussing unaccompanied minors is “ that they have been abandoned by their parents or legal guardians,” the DHS official said.  If it is “determined that there is a parent or guardian in the U.S. that they can be handed over to, then DHS needs to take a hard look over whether that person is actually'' an unaccompanied minor.

“There will be a renewed focus on ensuring that folks don't abuse the system,” the DHS official added.

They also expect legal opposition to a proposal that would strip undocumented immigrants of existing privacy protections, allowing personal information such as asylum cases or immigration violations to be publicly disclosed.

“We want to ensure that our privacy policies are consistent with the law,” the DHS official said.  “The Privacy Act applies by statute to citizens'' and green card holders.  “The President has asked us to align our laws with what congress has directed.”

“The Trump people have clearly bought into the model of harsh enforcement.  They apparently think, 'we'll be tough, and a lot of people will leave on their own,'” said Martin, an immigration law professor at the University of Virginia.  “They believe they'll win in the court of public opinion.  I'm not sure about that.  A lot of Americans know hard-working undocumented immigrants.  The kind of enforcement Trump's people are talking about will visibly create many more sympathetic cases than unsympathetic ones.”

Some of the provisions explicitly acknowledge that it could take years before DHS has the manpower and money to pull off what the President has ordered.  Immigration enforcement agents, however, have already begun filling the policy void by launching raids and deportations, including some that advocates worry are meant to test the limits.  Meanwhile panic has taken hold in many immigrant communities.

“The level of fear is more than anything we've ever seen,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.  She said the plan's sweep, “sent a chill to my bones,” because it threatens to do irreparable harm to millions of families.  She added, “This all seems aimed at changing who we are as a nation.”

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 1/27/2017

"Shields and Brooks on Trump's first week, the future of ‘alternative facts'" PBS NewsHour 1/27/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  From Mexico to Russia, pipelines to refugees, President Trump had a busy first week of work.  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including an assessment of the President's executive actions and willingness to pick fights, the White House opposition against the media and whether the GOP will assert independence.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  From executive actions to early morning tweets, the first week of the Trump administration has been marked by a flurry of twists and turns.

To help make sense of it all, the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

And welcome to both of you.

And I guess you could say, Mark, from Mexico to Russia, from oil pipelines to health care, it has not been a quiet first week.  How's it gone?

MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist:  Well, if you're a Trump supporter, it's gone terrific.

He's done what he said he was going to do.  He was — honored his campaign commitments on the wall, on keeping the borders secure, or safe, or limited, and stopping immigration as much as possible, and building the pipeline and going ahead.  I mean, so, in that sense, he didn't lose any support among his supporters.

Among his critics, I think whose doubts were very much, in large part not simply ideological, but about the temperament of Donald Trump, it's reinforced those doubts, his performance, especially the smallness of his preoccupation about the size of the crowd, which he keeps returning to in a rather bizarre fashion.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  How do you see this first week, David?

DAVID BROOKS, New York Times:  We were here a week ago together, and it feels like a century.

And I wonder, over the course of his Presidency, can he keep up this pace of news and busyness and conflict without just exhausting everybody?

And I will say, among business people I have spoken to, among political class, and among the Republicans on the Hill, just a great sense of being unnerved, unnerved at the instability.

Partly, he's done what he said, as Mark said.  He's undermined the post-war international order pretty quickly.  Tearing down TPP was a bill that I think economists say would have produced hundreds of millions — billions of dollars of earnings every year for Americans.

Picking a fight with our second biggest export market, very unnerving.  I don't see the — but then I think the two other things I would say is, the general sense of chaos and incompetence on how you do it.

OK, you want to pick a fight with Mexico.  Do you have to do it by tweet?  Do you have put forward a proposal that would have Americans paying for the wall, and then sort of withdraw it, and then sort of not withdraw it, do in a way maximally designed to polarize Mexican opinion against the United States?

And then the final thing is, I wonder, I'm left wondering, how much of this is real?  OK, he signs a series of papers that Steve Bannon and others wrote for him, but who is going to implement it?  Does it make any sense?  We saw that with the Syrian ban in the discussion earlier in the program.

TRUMP AGENDA - The Wall

aka "The Art of Making More Enemies"

"What Trump's wall means for U.S. relations with Mexico" PBS NewsHour 1/26/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  What do President Trump's latest actions on immigration mean for U.S. relations with Mexico?  Former State Department official Roger Noriega and James Carafano from the Heritage Foundation join Antonio Mora to discuss the apparent rift between President Trump and Mexico's President Enrique Peña over the decision to build a wall along the southern border.

ANTONIO MORA (NewsHour):  Let's take a closer look now at the rift developing between President Trump and Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto.

For what that might mean for both countries, I'm joined by Roger Noriega of the American Enterprise Institute.  He's a former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs in the George W. Bush administration.  And James Carafano, vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation.

Very good to have you both here.

Roger, I want to start with you.

Was the cancellation of this meeting, because both leaders were backed into a corner, Donald Trump by his promises in the campaign that he was going to build that wall and Mexico was going to pay for it, and Pena Nieto because his approval ratings are so terrible, that he has to play hardball politically?

ROGER NORIEGA, American Enterprise Institute:  Well, I think it's fair to say that this was a very uncomfortable exchange between these two leaders.

Certainly, I think President Trump didn't want to be seen as having a meeting canceled on him, so he suggested that it was a common decision to maybe reschedule.

But, from the point of view of Pena Nieto, he — you know, the insistence that Mexico's going to pay for a wall, in spite of his declarations to the contrary, put this very weak president on the defensive at home.

And, you know, this is our second largest trading partner.  This is a country we should be cultivating a positive dialogue about how we work together to make ourselves more secure and more competitive vis-a-vis the rest of the world.

ANTONIO MORA:  And, James, did Pena Nieto have really any choice, after President Trump tweeted that the meeting had to be canceled if Mexico wasn't going to pay for the wall?

JAMES CARAFANO, Heritage Foundation:  Yes, I don't think it's just about that tweet.

And I want to start by saying, I think the Mexican government actually started out exactly right, and not just what the president has said, but the whole the way the campaign rhetoric was portrayed.  That's what's being dumped into Latin America.  They're not watching FOX News.

And, I mean, they're basically hearing a very vitriolic, very aggressive description of this.

"White House floats import tax amid tensions with Mexico" PBS NewsHour 1/26/2017

"Congress would be willing to foot the bill$" aka 'we are going to shaft tax payers for the bill$.'

AND 'criminal immigrants' = being Mexican.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump's push for a wall on the border has opened a diplomatic rift with Mexico.  After Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced he was canceling a visit to Washington, Mr. Trump gave no ground at a GOP retreat in Philadelphia.  Congressional leaders said Congress would be willing to foot the bill for a wall for now.  Lisa Desjardins talks to Judy Woodruff from Philadelphia.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 9/2/2016

"Shields and Brooks on immigration and whether Clinton should lay low" PBS NewsHour 9/2/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  This week, Donald Trump took a surprise trip to Mexico before his landmark immigration speech.  But are his views too radical for the electorate?  Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is hitting a fundraising stride, though her email scandal remains in the headlines.  Hari Sreenivasan speaks with syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks for analysis of the week in politics.

WAR ON DRUGS - Capture of 'El Chapo'

"What the capture of ‘El Chapo’ means for Mexico’s drug wars" PBS NewsHour 1/8/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Joaquin Guzman, aka "El Chapo," perhaps the world's most notorious drug lord, was arrested nearly six months after his elaborate escape from a high-security prison in Mexico.  Hari Sreenivasan learns more from Alfredo Corchado of Arizona State University about what the capture means for the Mexican government.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  I’m joined now by Alfredo Corchado, director of the Borderlands program at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.  He has also reported for many years from Mexico for The Dallas Morning News, and is author of “Midnight in Mexico,” a book about his experience covering the brutal drug war.

So, let’s start with the basics.  What happened?  Where was he?  How did he get captured?

ALFREDO CORCHADO, Arizona State University:  Well, he was captured this morning right before dawn, intense firefight between the marines and drug traffickers, people close to or guarding Chapo Guzman.

What we know is that, since last July, the marines, with the help of U.S. intelligence, had been tracking him in several Mexican states, including Sinaloa, where he was captured this morning, the state of Durango, and even Tabasco.

This — there were two confrontations, from what we know, the first one at a private home and then he was later captured at a motel.  Five of his trusted bodyguards were killed, and at least one marine was wounded.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  This is the second time the president of Mexico has gone on national television and said they have got this guy.  I mean, this is an important win.

ALFREDO CORCHADO:  This is the second time for President Pena Nieto, and the third time that a Mexican president has said that.

He said, you know, “Mission accomplished,” but I think a lot of people will feel that the mission has not been accomplished until Chapo actually faces justice.  And the best chance of doing that will be on the U.S. side.

So, there’s a lot of tangling already going on, a lot of debate as to whether he will be extradited this time.