Trump defends plan to build border wall on visit to Mexico

Donald Trump defended his plan to build a wall at the US-Mexico border when he met Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto but did not discuss his insistence that Mexico would pay for it.

The Republican presidential nominee was speaking following their meeting in Mexico City after he accepted the president’s invitation to visit.

However early this morning reports emerged contradicting Mr Trump’s claim that the issue of who would pay for the wall was not discussed. It was reported that Mr Pena Nieto said he had told Mr Trump that Mexico would not pay for a wall. Mr Trump had said: “We did discuss the wall. We didn’t discuss payment of the wall. That will be for a later date.

“This was a very preliminary meeting,” the businessman told reporters after he and Mr Peña Nieto made remarks following their meeting that Mr Trump said lasted more than an hour. The Republican’s plan to build a wall along about the border to keep illegal immigrants out of the US – and his plan to make Mexico pay it – is a signature policy of Mr Trump’s candidacy and has become a popular rallying cry among supporters at his rallies.

Immigration

The meeting took place hours before Mr Trump made a much-anticipated speech on immigration in which he is expected to soften his immigration stance to appeal to minority voters amid falling poll numbers.

Standing next to the Mexican president in his first official meeting with a head of state as the Republican presidential nominee, Mr Trump struck a distinctly different tone to the blustering campaigner who fires up supporters his rally with anti-immigrant, nationalistic rhetoric.

He described Mexican Americans as “amazing people” and said that first- second- and third-generation Mexican Americans in the US were “just beyond reproach” and “spectacular, spectacular hard-working people”.

“I have such great respect for them,” he said.

When Mr Trump launched his presidential bid in June 2015, he said Mexican immigrants were bringing drugs and crime to the US and called them “rapists”.

Mr Trump concluded his remarks calling Mr Peña Nieto “a friend,” 14 months after he said that at his campaign launch that Mexico was “not our friend”.

Mr Peña Nieto, who has also invited Mrs Clinton to Mexico City, said the Mexican people “felt hurt” by Mr Trump’s comments but he respected that the businessman genuinely wanted to build better relations.

Mr Trump told reporters that he and Mr Peña Nieto had “a very substantive, direct and constructive exchange of ideas over quite a period of time”.

‘Humanitarian disaster’

“I was straightforward in presenting my views about the impacts of current trade and immigration policies on the United States,” he said.

The US and Mexico should work towards ending illegal immigration not just between the two countries, but from Central and South America, he said, calling the issue “a humanitarian disaster”.

“Having a secure border is a sovereign right and mutually beneficial.

“We recognise and respect the right of either country to build a physical barrier or wall on any of its borders to stop the illegal movement of people, drugs and weapons,” he said.

“Co-operation toward achieving this shared objective – and it will be shared – of safety for all citizens is paramount to both the United States and to Mexico,” he said.