Suddenly that whole idea about sending the National Guard to the border isn’t looking quite so controversial. While the caravan of illegal aliens heading north seems to have largely stalled, that doesn’t mean that border security questions have been put to rest. Instead, they may be getting worse. Recent calls for the Mexican government to do more to prevent such mass incursions have been met with a firm response in Mexico’s Senate. They are calling for President Enrique Pena Nieto to stop cooperating with the United States on issues of immigration and border security. What a fun and neighborly attitude to take, eh? (Washington Times)

Mexican senators are urging President Enrique Pena Nieto to temporarily suspend cooperation with the U.S. on immigration and security issues, responding to angry tweets from President Donald Trump about their country.

The nonbinding statement was approved unanimously Wednesday. It asks Mexico’s government to freeze joint efforts “in the fight against transnational organized crime” until Trump acts “with the civility and respect that the people of Mexico deserve.”

The senators condemn the “baseless and offensive comments about Mexico and Mexicans,” reject efforts to militarize the countries’ shared border and ask the U.S. Congress to insist the president deal with Mexico “on the basis of respect and collaboration.”

So this is apparently the level of seriousness we can expect from Mexico’s elected legislators. Because they don’t care for the “tone” of some of President Trump’s tweets, their immediate response is the equivalent of a kid on the recess playground who didn’t get picked for the softball game. They’ll simply toss up their hands and abandon their responsibilities to cover their side of the nation’s borders. (Not that they were doing a stellar job of it before this, but any help is better than nothing.)

For his part, Nieto was unwilling to give a firm answer, saying only that he was “waiting for clarifications about U.S. intentions” before making a decision. How is this even a question? The man sought the highest elected office in his nation and that comes with a variety of responsibilities, one of which is to maintain their borders. And he’s contemplating such a move at the same time that he’s facing renewed negotiations of NAFTA? Doesn’t sound like the smartest deal-making strategy imaginable.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail in short order. They have politics in Mexico just as we do in the United States. Perhaps some of their legislators are simply trying to score a few headlines and look like they’re making a stand against their “aggressive” neighbor. But if these threats turn into actual policy, it wouldn’t take much to remind Mexico of who really benefits the most from our mutually cooperative relationship. And if the United States was suddenly less cooperative in return, their tenuous economy could be in even worse shape in short order.