Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is making the best of a very difficult situation: He has to work with the vagaries of his new neighbour in the White House, but at the same time, he has to keep a grip on reality. United States President Donald Trump has signed the executive order that put his trademark policy of building a wall between the two states into effect and he has said that Mexico will be made to pay for the wall, even if indirectly. The more statesman-like Pena Nieto has repeated that Mexico would not put a single peso towards the new US president’s project.

Nonetheless, Pena Nieto will still go ahead with a visit to Washington despite pressure from naturally infuriated and insulted Mexicans to abandon the trip and freeze relations with the overbearing administration in the White House.

It is true that the US already has millions of illegal immigrants from Central America, but Trump’s simplistic plan of building a wall is not an answer. Even if he says that “we’re in the middle of a crisis on our southern border”, citing an “unprecedented surge” of illegal immigrants, the reality is that more Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the US than have migrated to the US since the end of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, according to the Pew Research Centre.

The long-term answer lies in the naturalisation of those illegals currently in the US, many of whom have been there for decades and have worked and contributed to American society. Clearly, those who break the law and cause chaos should be asked to leave, but research shows that immigrants are often more law-abiding than non-immigrants, and have much to contribute to their new society (particularly in the US where society is entirely based on immigrants). The administration of previous president Barack Obama had a plan to tackle this very difficult issue that had been dodged by previous administrations. And even if Trump will not look at Obama’s ideas with any sympathy, building a wall is not the way forward.

Pena Nieto has a challenge to try and work with Trump on a huge variety of issues, including trying to save the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, from his isolationist and narrow view of how the world works. If the way he has begun to handle the wall is any indication of his style, he deserves our sympathy and support.