In his speech, Mr Trump laid out a sweeping nationalist plan to dramatically slash illegal immigration, a main plank of his presidential campaign.
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Mr Pena Nieto’s Twitter page told a different story, with the president telling his followers that he had made it clear at the very start of their discussion that Mexico would not pay for the wall’s construction.
When asked to to clarify the point, the Mexican president said that some of the positions taken by Trump during this election year, “represent a threat to the future of Mexico”.
“We want people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally and properly-vetted, and in a manner that serves the national interest”, he said. “Our borders must be secured and every illegal immigrant in the United States must be accounted for”.
Mr Trump, a NY hotel developer, stormed to an unlikely victory in the Republican primaries partly due to his tough talking on immigration. “It was an excellent meeting”, Trump said.
“We will be fair, just and compassionate to all, but our greatest compassion must be for our American citizens”, he said.
The first feature of his plan was the wall that he has promised almost from the beginning.
Trump didn’t say Mexico would pay for the wall during his visit, but back in Phoenix he assured the crowd that Mexico would be a willing partner in both paying for it and helping to monitor the border.
“Mexico will pay for the wall, 100 percent”, the NY businessman said. Shortly after the meeting, the Mexican President tweeted confirming that payment was indeed discussed, and he reiterated his stance that Mexico would not pay for the wall.
“Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation”, Trump charged in the highly anticipated speech, which took place hours after he met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Some of that has already begun with tweets from Peña Nieto that appear to contradict Trump’s statement that the wall was not discussed. Trump even went on to claim that the Mexican government would pay for this “beautiful” and “impenetrable” wall, when just hours earlier the country’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, had made it clear that they wouldn’t.
So now that Trump has spent 45 minutes in “Mexico is not our friend”, he’s totally sympatico with our neighbors to the south. “So many, many people”.
“For those here illegally today who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only: to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else. there will be no amnesty”.
“We have to listen to the concerns that working people, our forgotten working people, have over the record pace of immigration and its impact on their jobs, wages, housing, schools, tax bills and general living conditions”, he said.
He said he would create a “deportation task force”, and joked that “Maybe they’ll be able to deport (Hillary Clinton)”. And they will have to pass an ideological test. He didn’t say, ‘Well my policies now changed.’ He didn’t say that.
Since at least June, Trump backed off promises of mass deportations. “Stop illegal immigration. Watch Wednesday!”
The fiery speech dashed the hopes of Republicans who had wanted Trump to adopt “gentler and more measured rhetoric,”said Bloomberg”.
The former mayor added that Trump’s proposed border wall would be “technological as well as a physical wall… that can detect people five, six miles away”. And only after this “extreme vetting” will they be put on the path to being allowed into the country. “It’s going to end badly, folks”.
Polls show him trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton in most of the key states that will determine the US election He is struggling to win over moderate voters, including Republicans, who are turned off by his brash rhetoric and controversial proposals on immigration and other matters.
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Donald delivered the speech in Phoenix in front of a sea of white faces and made his points so boldly it came across like he was nearly yelling the whole time.
