File this under “stories we never thought we’d have to write.” On Saturday, Mexican international and FC Porto full back Miguel Layún tweeted out a photo of a Toys”R”Us store in Gaia, Portugal that had put up a “joke” wall with a sign pointing away to “Mexico.” The reference to President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall along the Mexico-US border was not lost on Layún:
“How sad that a Toys”R”Us in Gaia has this type of decoration,” reads the tweet. “We decided to leave as soon as we saw this ‘joke.’” Layún was visiting the store on a day off before his club team’s match against Boavista on Sunday (a game that Porto ended up winning 1-0). His tweet garnered over thirteen thousand retweets and countless comments in support of his decision to not patronize the store.
For their part, Toys”R”Us replied to the tweet (in English) an hour later:
This is not the first public sentiment against the administration’s immigration policies by a Mexican soccer player since Election Day. Last month, captain Rafa Marquez tweeted a video of a free kick he scored while at FC Barcelona, with a joking tone about there being “no wall capable of stopping us if we believe in ourselves.” Last November, just days after Trump was elected, the Mexican and American national teams joined up for a photo in solidarity before a World Cup qualifying match in Columbus, Ohio.
More recently, LA Galaxy up-and-comer Miguel Aguilar spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the rising tide of anti-immigration sentiment. As he is believed to be the first DACA recipient to become a professional athlete in the United States, Aguilar has a unique perspective on the policy changes enacted by the current administration: “You’re telling me just because [my mother] was born on the wrong side of this border, that doesn’t make her a human anymore? […] Just that fear of separation of families again. That’s my biggest issue with this whole immigration stuff.”