My colleague Kausha Luna recently reported on Mexican officials' reaction to the Trump administration's decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Luna quotes the Mexican Ministry of Public Education as saying that so-called "Dreamers" will be "welcomed with open arms", and that they will be integrated into the Mexican educational system at all levels, including at post-secondary universities.
Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray-Caso reiterated this in statements he made on Monday, saying that "America's loss will be Mexico's gain" and reiterating the earlier "open arms" statement.
Even the opposition party leader who is running for president of Mexico has weighed in to say that "Dreamers" will be welcome in Mexico.
Yet at the same time, Videgaray, President Enrique Pena-Nieto (who said "this is the other Mexico" while visiting Los Angeles recently), and other top Mexican officials are vigorously lobbying the U.S. Congress to pass legislation granting amnesty to these "Dreamers" and expeditiously send it to President Trump for signature.
So just how serious is Mexico about its willingness to reintegrate the percentage of the "Dreamer" population that is Mexican (about three-quarters of all DACA recipients) back into its society?
Is this just one of those games by politicians, Mexican politicians in this case, to play the "optics and atmospherics" of public opinion in order to appear sympathetic while at the same doing all they can to ensure that they don't, in fact, need to do anything to accommodate "Dreamers"?
It remains an open question.