Making Mexico pay
His plan became known Tuesday when his campaign released a two-page memo on the funding of the proposed Trump Wall, which he intends to build to keep out illegal immigrants. The memo said he’d force remittance from Mexico to the tune of $5 to $10 billion for the wall by threatening to freeze money transfers from America to Mexico.
The memo, dated March 31, said that to prevent the money transfers, which are an important part of the Mexican economy, he would use the Patriot Act anti-terrorism law. The intention, the memo said, would be to force Mexico into a one-time payment of the $5 to $10 billion figure.
Mexico receives in the neighborhood of $25 billion annually from money transfers sent from the U.S. Trump’s campaign said agreeing to pay for the wall would be “an easy decision for Mexico to make.”
Border wall cost
Figures for building a wall have been crunched by various organizations and the numbers come to more like $25 billion, and that does not include money to acquire private lands. It is estimated the cost of maintenance would be $750 million yearly and should border patrol be needed that, too, would add to the costs.
In the past Trump has referred to his wall as a “great and beautiful wall” that would stretch the entire length of the 1,300 mile border with their southern neighbor. He first proposed it in June when he began his campaign and it got such traction, some analysts feel it played a large role in his rise to the top in the race for the Republican nomination.
He’s brought it up throughout the campaign and made remarks that many in Mexico, and America, consider a threat of war with Mexico if they refuse to pay for the wall. Here are remarks he made in a live TV interview on MSNBC with journalist Bob Woodward:
First of all Mexico is not going to build it, we are going to build it,” Trump told Woodward, adding that Mexico would be forced to pay without revealing how.
“If they say ‘no,'” Woodward asked him. “Would you be willing to go to war to make sure we get the money to pay for this wall?”
“When I rejuvenate our military,” Trump replied. “Mexico is not going to be playing with us with war. That I can tell you. Mexico is not playing with us with war.
That interview was done on Wednesday, March 9, and the headlines in Mexico following it were centered around Trump threatening them with a war if they did not pay for the wall.
Here are two of those headlines: ‘Donald Trump says he would be willing to launch a war if Mexico doesn’t pay for the wall’ and ‘If Mexico doesn’t want to pay for the wall, there will be war: Trump.’
Trump has, incidentally, declined to build a wall along the Canadian border. He said it would be too long and too expensive and that in any case Canada “is not our biggest problem.”
