Immediately following his racist outburst, Senator Kennedy went on to state that President Biden should get on the phone and “make President López Obrador a deal he can’t refuse,” a naked threat against a sitting head of state.
Senator Kennedy’s rant, reminiscent of the dehumanizing rhetoric deployed prior to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, joins calls by other members of Congress, including Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to invade or bomb México. Such outlandish proposals, if acted upon, would cause the death of thousands of innocent people and displace thousands more, while doing nothing to stop the flow of illicit substances such as fentanyl across the border.
White House officials, meanwhile, have done little to try to limit Republican posturing vis-a-vis México. In a recent appearance of his own in the Senate, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken entertained the notion that Washington could designate Mexican organized crime groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations: a necessary first step to justifying unilateral US military action in Mexico.
Such comments are all the more ironic in light of the fact that drug cartels are armed primarily with US-manufactured guns, the illegal trafficking of which into Mexico the US government has done very little to stem.
Senator Kennedy’s remarks are an insult to Mexican nationals living on both sides of the border, including those who make up an integral part of the United States workforce, and without whose labor the US economy would not be what it is today. It is also insulting to the millions of US citizens of Mexican descent, placing them at greater risk of violence, discriminatory acts and hate crimes.
We call upon Senator Kennedy to retract his comments and make a full and unreserved apology to México and the Mexican-American community.
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