Visit by US legislators was “proactive” despite their conservative profile
Fernando Camacho Servin
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, February 8, 2026, p. 7
The profile of many American legislators who visited San Lázaro last Friday, with the task of promoting dialogue with the Legislative Branch of Mexico, is conservative, opposed to migration and even critical of the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, according to a document prepared by the Chamber of Deputies.
According to the aforementioned folder – a copy of which this newspaper has –, one of the legislators most critical of Mexico is Carlos Antonio Giménez, Republican of Florida, of Cuban origin, who has described the shipment of Mexican oil to Cuba as a “subsidy to a communist regime”, and has even formally asked the departments of State and Treasury that the review of the T-MEC be conditioned on Mexico stopping its crude oil shipments to the island.
Just one day after visiting San Lázaro, Giménez published a message on his social networks that says: “Mexico continues trying to undermine the foreign policy of the United States by pathetically sending oil to the brutal dictatorship in Cuba.” On other occasions, the legislator has suggested that Mexico is too lax with “organizations narcoterrorists”.
Another US congressman with a very critical stance towards the country is fellow Republican Michael Cloud (Texas), who has accused Mexico of violating the USMCA on agriculture and has opposed any form of amnesty for undocumented immigrants. In addition, it proposes “eliminating birthright citizenship, the end of work visas for those who arrive in the country irregularly, and the repeal of sanctuary cities.”
A similar case is that of Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), who according to the legislative dossier, “has promoted conservative policies on fiscal, immigration and regulatory issues. She has supported measures to withdraw federal funds from organizations that assist unauthorized immigrants and pressure cities with policies that make it difficult to enforce immigration laws.”
Fellow Republican Michael McCaul (Texas), president of the United States-Mexico Interparliamentary Group, has been critical of some actions of Donald Trump’s government, but at the same time “frames immigration policy as an issue of border security and law enforcement, with an emphasis on prioritizing the removal of ‘foreign criminals’.”
cordial meeting
Despite this background, Pevemista deputy Raúl Bolaños considered that the meeting with the Americans was cordial. “A legislator even came who has been quite harsh in his criticism of Mexico, and at the meeting he was quite proactive,” the parliamentarian said yesterday, without specifying who he was talking about.
