Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made a speech in Arizona that detailed his plans for immigration reform if he becomes president, and returned to a proposal that stirred controversy when he first made it: He called for building a wall across the border of the United States and Mexico, and making Mexico pay for it.
On March 3, 2016, the Mexican government made its first direct comment on the issue, according to The Guardian.
"I say it emphatically and categorically: Mexico, under no circumstance is going to pay for the wall that Mr. Trump is proposing," Mexican Treasury Secretary Luis Videgaray said.
"Building a wall between Mexico and the United States is a very bad idea, it is an idea based in ignorance and that is not supported by the reality of North American integration," Videgaray said.
Trump first called for building a wall as far back as June 2015. "I'd build it. I'd build it very nicely. I'm very good at building things," Trump said, MSNBC reported.
Former Mexican presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon, in the months after Trump mentioned it, also rebuked the idea that Mexico would pay for a wall. In February 2016, Calderon compared Trump to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, the Guardian reported.
Calderon at the time said Trump's comments were "frankly racist and exploiting feelings like Hitler did in his time."
"He's going to take the U.S. back to the old days of conflict, war, and everything, "Fox said. "I mean, he reminds me of Hitler. That's the way he started speaking."
Trump met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto before he made his Arizona speech. He said they had a "great, substantive, constructive exchange of ideas."
After his Arizona speech, a number of Trump's Latino surrogates are questioning their support of him.
Jacob Monty, a member of Trump's National Hispanic Advisory Council, resigned after hearing Trump's speech.
The Washington Post looked at Trump's immigration plan from his speech, and found that it could target up to 6.5 million immigrants for deportation.
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