Shortly after the joint appearance, a dispute arose over the most contentious part of the billionaire’s plans to secure the USA southern border and fight illegal immigration – his insistence that Mexico must pay to build his promised wall.
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“There will be no legal status or becoming a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country”, Trump told cheering supporters. “They get mocked by these people”, he said. “Those days are over”.
Despite meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto before his rally in Phoenix Wednesday night, the Republican presidential nominee is not softening his stance on immigration.
“The proposal to build the wall, and to believe that Mexico could and would pay for it, is outrageous”, presidential spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told local radio on Thursday, after Trump’s rapid, impromptu visit to Mexico.
Trump was cheered in Arizona, but his appearance in Mexico sparked anger and protests. “Then he goes back, and then to the hometown audience, he gives this fiery speech, language of division, you know?”
At a joint press conference, Trump said the two talked about his plans for a wall on the United States’ southern border but the topic of who pays for it did not come up. Whatever they said behind closed doors remains behind closed doors.
Hours later, Pena Nieto said in a tweet that he had told Trump clearly in their private meeting that Mexico would not pay.
But, after Trump left, the Mexican President was blander. Kaine said on “CBS This Morning” Thursday. But most of all, the former reality star wants to ensure that everyone who comes here “love [s] us”.
In his speech, Trump emphasized that his priority would be to quickly deport those among the undocumented population who have committed serious crimes.
Immigration is Trump’s signature issue as he battles Democrat Hillary Clinton ahead of the November 8 election. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Trump insisted he’d revoke President Barack Obama’s executive actions allowing those immigrants to remain in the country.
To accomplish the goal of deporting more illegal immigrants, Trump’s proposed ways of expanding the already existing deportation task force, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as ICE. We help cut those things off and it makes it easier for a serious president of Mexico to deal with the drug cartels.
So, after his claim the payment wasn’t discussed, the world was surprised to hear from Nieto, via his Twitter feed on Wednesday night that, in fact, they had discussed who would pay for it and that it sure wasn’t going to be Mexico.
Trump’s rhetoric would have fit right into the Republican primary.
Reading from a prepared script, he said Mexican-Americans were “beyond reproach” and “spectacular, hardworking people”.
Central to Trump’s campaign has been the theme of keeping “America First”, and keeping in line with that theme he stressed that America should choose people from countries that can successfully assimilate to American values.
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The problem, of course, is that there simply aren’t enough voters in Trump’s base of support to elect him president.
