Biden, ex-Mexican president slam Trump's immigration rhetoric

US Vice President Joe Biden has slammed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s rhetoric regarding immigration as "dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised".

"The message that is coming out of the United States as a consequence of the presidential campaign, about American attitudes toward Mexicans and Mexico generally, the entire hemisphere and our place in the world, is disturbing," Biden said during a visit to Mexico City on Thursday.

"But here's what I'm here to tell you: They do not, they do not, they do not represent the view of the vast majority of the American people," he added.

"This too shall pass.... We have gone through these episodes of xenophobia but they have always been overcome."

Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul, has infuriated Mexico from the start of his candidacy by declaring that the country was sending “criminals” and “rapists” across the border and that he would force the neighboring government to pay for a giant wall to keep illegal migrants out.

He has promised, if elected president in 2016, to expel undocumented immigrants in the United States and build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Use of F-word to slam Trump's wall

Joining the chorus of outrage, in an interview with the US television network Fusion on Thursday, former Mexican President Vicente Fox called Donald Trump "crazy" and used the F-word to lash out against Trump’s demand for Mexico to pay for a border wall.

"I am not going to pay for that f***ing wall. He should pay for it. He's got the money,” said Fox.

When asked whether he was afraid that the front-runner for the Republican nomination could be the next US president, Fox said: "Not at all. Democracy cannot take crazy people that don’t know what's going on in the world today."

He pointed to the backing of 46 percent of Hispanics who voted in the Republican caucus in the western state of Nevada, saying, "Please, you Hispanics, Latinos in the US, open your eyes. It's not to defend our race. It's not to defend our creed. It's to defend this very same nation that is hosting you. This nation is going to fail if it goes into the hands of a crazy guy."

Felipe Calderon, another former Mexican president, also panned Trump's wall idea this month, saying, "Mexican people, we are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall. And it's going to be completely useless," adding, "The first loser of such a policy would be the United States."

Meanwhile, Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, two Republican candidates who are sons of Cuban immigrants and Trump's closest competitors, have taken a hard stance on the issue of immigration.

Back in October, in a speech to Latino political leaders, US President Barack Obama said, "The greatness of America comes not from building walls," in an apparent reference to Trump’s comments on building an anti-immigrant wall, adding that "economists agree that immigration does not hurt our economy; it grows our economy."

The Latino vote has become crucial in US elections as Hispanics are now the biggest minority group in the country, surpassing African-Americans.

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