News / Foreign Policy

Mexico will not pay for Trump’s wall on US border: Nieto

Wednesday, 09 March 2016 1:37 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 09 March 2016 2:53 AM ]

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto addresses the press, at Los Pinos presidential residence, in Mexico City, on February 25, 2016. (AFP)

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says his country will not pay for the construction of a 2000-mile wall on the US-Mexico border, as proposed by US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“I have to say that I regret (the plan), and of course, I can't agree with this American politician's position," said Nieto on Tuesday, when asked about financing the construction of the wall.

The remarks came after Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul, infuriated Mexico last June 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.

"They say you'll never be able to build a wall," Trump said on March 2. "Well, it's 2,000 miles but we really need 1,000 miles. The Great Wall of China, built 2,000 years ago, is 13,000 miles, folks, and they didn't have Caterpillar tractors.”

Nieto compared the rhetoric of the US Republican front runner to that of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

"That's how Mussolini got in, that's how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis," Nieto said. "We don't want that happening anywhere in the world."

Last month, joining the chorus of outrage, former Mexican President Vicente Fox called Donald Trump "crazy" in an interview with the US television network Fusion and used an expletive 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.

In a speech to Latino political leaders in October 2015, US President Barack Obama said, "The greatness of America comes not from building walls," adding that "economists agree that immigration does not hurt our economy; it grows our economy."

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