Border tax for wall

Mexico would not have to pay upfront for a border wall with the United States, and could fund its construction by levying charges from travellers at the crossing point, an economic adviser to Donald Trump said yesterday.

The proposal by Peter Navarro came after the Republican presidential candidate prompted a renewed furore over his immigration policy, with a speech that called for the immediate deportation of millions of undocumented workers and reignited his row with the Mexican Government over border controls.

“There’s a very simple way for Mexico to pay for the wall,” said Navarro, an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of California ( Irvine). “We set up the borders, we control immigration, you levy a charge to come into the country.”

Doris Meissner, of the Migration Policy Institute, cast doubt on Navarro’s border tax, saying a huge number of people make the crossing daily for work and would not be able to afford it.

In a speech delivered in Arizona on Thursday hours after the Republican presidential candidate met Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico’s president, Trump called for a task force to be created to deport unwanted immigrants. “Day 1, my first hour in office, those people are gone,” he shouted. “They’re gone.”

Trump had hours earlier met with Pena Nieto in Mexico City.

But the aftermath of the meeting turned sour as Pena Nieto contradicted the Republican’s claim that they had not discussed paying for the wall, saying he had flatly told Trump that Mexico “would not pay for the wall”.