(Photo by Matthew Casey, KJZZ)

Mexican politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador is mobbed by reporters during his March 7 visit to Phoenix.

(Photo by Matthew Casey - KJZZ)

The leader of Morena, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, recently gave a speech about defending immigrants in Phoenix.

The Bernie Sanders of Mexican presidential politics gave a fiery speech Tuesday night in Phoenix.

Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd in an event room attached to Ranch Market, Andrés Manuel López Obrador heaped criticism on the United States and Mexico.

López Obrador has lost Mexico’s last two presidential elections, but supporters hope the Leftist can break through in 2018.

The man also known as AMLO, or el Peje, called Arizona’s southern desert a huge cemetery for undocumented immigrants, and said a border wall will not solve the problems it's supposed to.

“Although it will produce much suffering,” he said in Spanish. 

Flanked by local Latino leaders, López Obrador said President Donald Trump scared Americans with the story of immigrants taking away jobs.

“And now he aims to keep exploiting that lie so he can stay in the White House for eight years,” López Obrador said.

López Obrador later pivoted to Mexico’s corruption, which struck a nerve with Othoniel Ramírez, who came from Sonora to hear the speech. For Ramírez, no other presidential candidate will do besides López Obrador.

“Because we are fed up (in Mexico) with the (political) parties that have looted our country and are the cause of (im)migration,” he said in Spanish.

López Obrador will meet with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights next week.