The San Diego business community is building bridges — not walls — along the Mexican border, and needs to call out nativist demagogues like Donald Trump who would damage a key economic relationship.
“San Diego is now the cornerstone of resistance,” said nationally syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. “We need to remind people on both sides of the border about the importance of this relationship.”
Navarrette spoke Thursday at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce‘s third annual Cross-Border Leadership Luncheon at the U.S. Grant Hotel downtown.
“There’s nobody else in the country that can say they have a better relationship than the San Diego-Baja region,” he said, praising the chamber for it’s long-term efforts to promote the cross-border economy.
Navarrette expressed concern about the impact of a Trump presidency on Mexican-American relations, but said he was optimistic Trump’s business instincts would come into play. He noted that Trump has praised Mexicans for being great workers.
“The relationship will survive and thrive,” he predicted. “You’ll hear more and more about how Mexicans are great workers.”
He said it’s important for San Diego business and political leaders to call out Trump and others and challenge them with the facts about the economic integration between Mexico and the United States.
Chamber CEO Jerry Sanders, a former San Diego mayor and police chief, also took a swipe and the nativist politics on the national level.
“They’re talking about building walls, while those who live and work here are building bridges,” he said.
Sanders was flanked at the luncheon by the counsel generals of Mexico and Canada. “Commercially, we’re married to each other,” noted Canadian Counsel General Frederic Fournier.
Fournier’s Mexican counterpart, Remedios Gomez-Arnau, said it is important for citizens of all three nations to understand the importance of the transportation improvements taking place at the border between San Diego and Tijuana. “The border is a place where all of the connections are very evident on a daily basis,” she said.
“The only way you’re working together is to build bridges, not to be separate,” she said.
