Mexican Senate President Proposes Paying for U.S. Wall if Southwest Territory Reverts to 1830 Map

In a fiery statement that could stir the pot of U.S.-Mexico relations, Mexico's Senate President Gerardo Fernández Noroña made a bold quip about the U.S. border wall. He suggested that Mexico would foot the bill for the wall—if the border were redrawn to reflect the map of 1830, when much of the American Southwest was Mexican territory. This comment came amidst tensions over federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, which have sparked violent protests and scenes of demonstrators waving Mexican flags on U.S. soil.

Noroña, speaking in Spanish, recounted a 2017 conversation at Trump Tower with then President-elect Donald Trump. He proposed that Mexico would build and pay for the wall, but only if the territorial lines reverted to those pre-dating the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which saw Mexico cede about a third of its land after the Mexican-American War. Such a shift, he noted, would encompass a significant chunk of current U.S. territory, representing nearly half of the electoral vote.

The Senate President, a member of the left-wing Morena Party, expressed deep resentment over historical losses, claiming the treaty's terms have been disregarded. He argued that Mexican heritage remains strong in these regions, pointing to places like Laredo, Texas, where disaffected residents reportedly founded Nuevo Laredo across the Rio Grande to avoid American governance.

Addressing the current unrest in Los Angeles, Noroña questioned the U.S. government's stance on 'liberating' areas like California, asserting that for many Mexican men and women, this land has always been their homeland. He went further, suggesting that English shouldn’t even be a necessity in such historically Spanish-speaking areas, while condemning the treatment of migrants during the raids as undignified and unjust.

This provocative statement isn’t just a history lesson—it’s a challenge to the narrative of borders and belonging. As tensions simmer in the Southwest, Noroña’s words are likely to fuel debates on immigration, identity, and the ghosts of treaties past.