In a press conference today at the US Department of Homeland Security Donald Trump used Nixonian rhetoric portraying himself as the law and order candidate. The US is reeling from the shock of Trump's first week in office. Today Trump signed executive orders fulfilling his campaign rhetoric of xenophobic fear mongering against millions of undocumented workers in the US. Trump says a nation without borders is not a nation. Trump ignores the fact that the US/Mexican border crosses the legally recognized borders of dozens of indigenous nations. Nations whose territorial rights were recognized under the legal doctrine of sovereign succession through the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which also guarantees their free passage across the US/Mexican border.

Trump's proposed wall violates the borders of dozens of indigenous nations.

Indigenous peoples are not immigrants

The peoples of Mexico and Central America are of majority indigenous descent. Tragically, many deny or are unaware of their indigeneity due to first the legacy of Spanish colonialism and later because of Anglo American racism toward the indigenous. Nevertheless, to call those who are majority descended from the original peoples of the Americas “immigrants” is an absurdity. Trump asserts he intends to restore the rule of law in the US and alleges law enforcement have not been properly allowed to do their jobs. If Trump knew anything about the rule of law he would know that Article VI of the US Constitution states that the constitution and “all treaties made” shall be “the supreme law of the land.” Trump made it clear yesterday that borders and the rule of law mean nothing to him when he signed two executive memorandums in support of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.

Trump is already violating national borders

Both the 1851 an 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaties clearly define the borders and territorial rights of the Oceti Sakowin (Sioux Nation). Dakota Access is being illegally constructed through unceded treaty lands violating the legally recognized borders of the Sioux Nation. Interestingly, the law and order candidate also asserted his intention to fight drug cartels.

Trump condemned the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during his campaign. Trump stated his intention to strengthen the Mexican economy as it would be good for the US, yet it was NAFTA that destroyed Mexico's economy.

The NAFTA disaster

The US tried to force its cheap genetically modified foods into the Mexican economy, Mexico initially refused.

The US sued Mexico in what was then the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) alleging Mexico set up an unfair trade barrier. Mexico lost and the cheap US agricultural products that flooded Mexico destroyed its agrarian economy rendering millions of farmers landless, allowing the rise of the cartels and the mass migration of landless and impoverished peasants terrorized by the cartels into the US. The highly protectionist NAFTA has nothing whatever to do with free trade. The indigenous liberation movement known as the Zapatistas formed the day that NAFTA was signed. Mexico should be very concerned as to what Trump means by strengthening Mexico's economy. It is likely it means the continuing multinational corporate assault on a previously economically independent society.

US global economic hegemony might soon be strengthened. The Guardian reports UK Prime Minister Theresa May will meet with Trump possibly to negotiate the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Critics say the UK need look no further than Mexico and NAFTA to know what the European working class might expect. Trump concluded his divisive remarks with a contradictory call for unity. Trump's xenophobic rhetoric against alleged immigrants in a settler colonial country whose population is majority descended from immigrants is hardly unifying. Popular resistance continues to mount against Trump and the fight against the rise of global fascism continues.