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Mexico will pay for border wall: Trump

Arizona, United StatesUpdated: Sep 01, 2016, 11:06 AM IST
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The tack Trump has taken with America's African American population is basically one of: 'What have you got to lose?' Photograph:(Getty)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reasserted his hardline position against illegal immigrants in the country, hours after he came back from Mexico having met president Enrique Pena Nieto. 

Reiterating his plans to curb illegal immigration into the country, Trump said he would "build a great wall along the southern border" if he came to power.

"And Mexico will pay for the wall -- 100 per cent. They don't know it yet but they are going to pay for the wall," he said while making a public speech in Arizona.

The statement comes some time after Mexican president Nieto told Trump in a face-to-face meeting that Mexico would not incur the costs of building the wall.

"At the beginning of the conversation with Donald Trump I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall," Pena Nieto had said in a tweet.

Trump, meanwhile, adopted a tough stance in Arizona against the "11 million" illegal immigrants in the US.

He said people will be have to return to their home country and re-apply again to enter the United States. 

"Our message to the world will be this: You cannot obtain legal status or become a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country," Trump said.

"People will know you can`t just smuggle in, hunker down and wait to be legalized," he said.

(WION with inputs from AFP)