There are many things Donald Trump has said in the
course of his presidential campaign; indeed, in the course of his life. Each of those things can and should be
examined for truthfulness. But, one of
the most famous things he said was about Mexican immigrants to the United
States. So, I will begin by examining
those statements.
In his speech announcing that he would run for
president of the United States, he said:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending
their best. They’re not sending
you. They’re sending people that have
lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
“It’s coming from more than Mexico … . It’s coming from all over South and Latin
America … .”
Is this statement true? I will examine the truthfulness both of his
literal words and of his apparent (and generally accepted) meaning. The reason it is necessary to examine the
truthfulness of what he says and what people think he means is that those are
often quite different. For example, in
this announcement speech, he didn’t say that all illegal Mexican immigrants
were drug users or dealers, criminals, or rapists. In fact, he didn’t even say that most of them were drug users or dealers,
criminals, or rapists. But, that’s what
most people assumed he meant. This
assumption comes from both the context and the tone of what he said, not from
his exact words.
So, I will start by examining the truth of the
statement based on the actual words, not the generally assumed meaning.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending
their best.” It is impossible to know if
this statement is literally true. For
one thing, there can only be one “best,” so Mr. Trump could not have literally
meant that the Mexican government did not send their “best” citizen, since he
clearly refers to “best” in the plural.
Second, the only people who Mexico verifiably sends are its diplomats.
There is no evidence, at least none that I have been able to find, that
Mexico sends anyone other than its
diplomats. So, literally, the question
becomes “Are the Mexican diplomats to the United States among Mexico’s best?”
The most obvious Mexican diplomat is the ambassador
from Mexico to the United States.
According to Wikipedia, the current ambassador from Mexico to the United
States is Miguel Basáñez-Ebergenyi. The
Mexican government pays him $12,114.43 per month for his services.
Again
according to Wikipedia, Dr. Basáñez-Ebergenyi holds a Ph.D. in Political
Sociology from the London School of Economics in England. According to the website wes.org, the
enrollment rate in college in Mexico in 2011-12 was 32.8%. I could not find statistics on the number of
Mexicans who hold Ph.D.s or those who hold Ph.D.s from foreign universities,
but it is safe to assume it is a lot less than 32.8%. He is married to Tatiana Beltran, who also
holds a Ph.D.
“Prior to
his appointment as ambassador, Dr. Basáñez-Ebergenyi was an academic who taught
classes at the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University.”
According to their website, Tufts University was established in 1852 and
has three campuses in Massachusetts and one in France. It has 11,767 students, of which 5,847 are
graduate students and 1,246 are international.
It has a faculty of 1,423, giving it a faculty to student ratio of
approximately 1 to 8.
“Dr.
Basáñez-Ebergenyi's career includes work directing public opinion polls both
for private firms and for the Mexican government. He is a former President of
the World Association for
Public Opinion Research and he has also held several positions in the state
and federal government in Mexico.
“Additionally,
Dr. Basáñez-Ebergenyi has authored, co-authored, and edited 13 books on values,
public opinion, and politics.”
Of course,
we cannot tell whether Dr. Basáñez-Ebergenyi is literally Mexico’s “best,” but
it would be hard to imagine by what standard he would not be considered one of Mexico’s best.
I was unable
to find any statistics or data on the characteristics of the other diplomats
Mexico sends to the United States, so I was unable to verify whether they were
among Mexico’s “best.” But, I think it
is safe to say that Mexico does not intentionally send its “worst” citizens to
staff its embassies and consulates in the United States.
So, it is
safe to conclude that Mr. Trump’s statement, “[w]hen
Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … ,” is, at the very
least, literally misleading. It is safe
to conclude that when Mexico sends
its people, they are sending those who they consider to be among their best.
Of course, I
don’t believe that’s what he meant, but that’s what he literally said. It was not literally true. I believe he knew at the time he said it that
it was not literally true. If he said it
intending that people should believe it, it was a lie.
More later.
