MEXICO CITY, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. decision to build a wall on the border with Mexico has aroused strong sentiment in its southern neighbor, where the academic circle is dismissing it as racist.

    "Behind this wall is the pretension of a government that is ready to ignore all sense and to offend one of its most important partners in the region," said a leading critic of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on Monday.

    Edumdo Hernandez Vela of the International Relations Department of the UNAM said that Mexico is the biggest labor supplier of the United States, and that foreign workers are a fundamental pillar of the U.S. economy.

    Mexico's neighbor knows well that no barrier will completely end immigration, he said, adding that those who are keen to cross the border into the United States will surely find ways to go around any obstacle.

    There are some 10 million Mexican citizens living in the United States, of whom many arrived there illegally. A large number of the illegal immigrants now have papers that allow them to work.

    An estimated 500,000 Mexicans brave death and deportation each year to cross the Mexico-U.S. border. At least one of them dies each day of thirst, hunger or for other reasons in the job-seeking adventure, reports say.