Enrique Pena Nieto said if Donald Trump's anti-crossings wall is ever built along the United States-Mexico border his country won't be paying for it, reported
CNN.
The Mexican president's comments, made before, were resurrected on Sunday for an interview on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." The border wall has been part of the GOP nomineein-waiting's campaign from the beginning.
"We also have to bear in mind that the security of the United States is linked with the security of its neighboring countries," Pena Nieto said on show. "And this is what we have built. And I'll say it again, this is what we have been doing with the U.S. government."
"We have a relationship of coordination, of collaboration and of cooperation in the area of security, precisely in order to have security in Mexico, to have security in the U.S. and ... we are journey companions. We are strategic partners working for security in North America. There is no way that Mexico can pay [for] a wall like that."
Trump's website noted there are a number of ways to compel Mexico to pay for the border wall, including changing rules connected with transferring money out of the United States, trade tariffs, canceling visas, and increasing fees on visas.
Pena Nieto told CNN that because of legal immigration and how many people cross the U.S.-Mexican border lawfully on a daily basis, the two countries are "largely integrated" with one another.
"Not many people know, for instance, that every single day, one million people cross the border between Mexico and the U.S. and they do it legally – every single day – one million people cross the border from the U.S. into Mexico and from Mexico into the U.S.," said Pena Nieto.
According to the
Pew Research Center, from 1965 to 2015 more than 16 million Mexicans migrated to the U.S., representing one of the largest mass migrations in modern history.
Pew Research said, though, that migration has "slowed dramatically" over the past 10 years and Mexico now served as a land bridge for Central American immigrants coming to the country. The center said El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras immigrants top the list of those attempting to reach the U.S. through Mexico.