A few years ago, I had the opportunity to live and work for a U.S. company in Mexico. It was great, and the people were very nice.
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I recall that there was a joke that went around the “foreign” community whenever one of us had a critical comment about politics in Mexico. Our Mexican colleagues would usually laugh and say: Stop talking, or I’ll have the government apply “el 33” on you. It was a joke, and we would all have a good laugh about it.
It was about Article 33 of the Mexican Constitution. Let me explain:
The text in English actually states: “The president of the republic will have the power to expel from national territory any foreigner, according to the law and after a hearing. Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs
of the country.”
Article 33 is one of those “hyper-nationalism” features of Mexican history, and most Mexicans have no clue that it exists. It was based on this crazy fear that foreigners were going to take over the country. The U.S.-Mexican War of the 1840s and the French intervention in the 1860s probably contributed to the fear. (Read about 1862’s Battle of Puebla against French troops.)
The bottom line is that I am always reminded of Article 33 whenever I see foreign flags waving in U.S. protests, as we saw this week in the anti-ICE protests in Austin. Check this X post and video from Nick Sortor:
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🚨 BREAKING: Rioters waving foreign flags are BLOCKING MAJOR ROADWAYS in Austin following an ICE-involved shooting
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 20, 2026
They’ve stolen police tape and barricades to block roads, trapping several hundred motorists on a ramp
TEXAS STATE TROOPERS MUST INTERVENE! Because Austin PD sure… pic.twitter.com/SzhiWjswet
That last paragraph reads in full this way: “TEXAS STATE TROOPERS MUST INTERVENE! Because Austin PD sure as hell won’t!”
There they go again, to paraphrase then-candidate Reagan in that debate. There they go again, protesting with foreign flags, thinking that somehow that’s going to persuade the persuadable that their cause is just. They would have been better off shutting up and waiting for the details of the shooting to be released. But not this bunch. They want their “free lunch” for showing up and the five minutes of fame from newspeople eager to make ICE always look bad.
So let’s send them home and have them read about Article 33 in their own constitution.
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Image created using AI.
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