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MEXICO CITY, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Mexicans marched on Sunday through the Mexican capital city to protest the migration and trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The same day, Trump's aide Stephen Miller said new measures on immigration to "keep Americans safe" is being worked out.
Between 15,000 and 17,000 people participated in Sunday's two separate marches which converged on the Angel of Independence monument, according to police.
"No wall, no wall," the demonstrators repeatedly chanted. Among the demonstrators were Mexican historian Enrique Krauze and Enrique Graue, the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
"This is not the moment to look to the past. It is the moment to look to the future and send a message that we need sovereignty, strength and equality with our neighboring country," Graue told the press during the march.
Many of the protesters were dressed in white and carried Mexican flags, in a show of unity against Trump, who is seeking to build a border wall and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
One of the banners read: "Gracias, Trump, for unifying Mexico!"
Some of the activists made a wall out of cardboard boxes at a corner of the Angel of Independence monument as a sign of rejection of the border wall Trump believes will reinforce U.S. national security.
"This march might be coming a little late but better late than never," Mauricio de Maria y Campos, a researcher from the College of Mexico's Economic Studies Center, told Xinhua.
"The Mexican people are aggrieved by this racist attitude that was shown during the (electoral) campaign and is being crystallized now when he (Trump) is president," he commented.
Campos, a former director-general of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, said that policies such as the wall, mass repatriations or blocking all citizens of specific countries from entering the United States are in violation of universal human rights.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order which bars citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen from traveling to the United States for 90 days, stops accepting refugees for 120 days and indefinitely halts refugees from Syria.
Last week, hundreds of undocumented immigrants from a dozen Latin American countries have been arrested in at least six U.S. states including California, following Trump's executive order to broaden the scope of immigration enforcement targets.
"We are contemplating new and additional actions to ensure that immigration is not a vehicle for admitting people into our country that are hostile to its nation and its values," presidential aide Stephen Miller said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"As a result of the president's order, greatly expanded and more vigorous immigration enforcement activities are taking place," said Miller.
Earlier, Trump tweeted: "The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!"
On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump pledged to deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
There are estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living across the United States.
