Peña Nieto, the president of Mexico, canceled his trip to Washington, D.C., Thursday following President Donald Trump’s executive action to build a wall on the Mexican border and insisting Mexico pay for it.
Along with building the wall, the executive order signed Wednesday aims to create more detention centers and add thousands more border patrol agents. Federal funding will be withheld from “sanctuary cities.” Sanctuary cities such as, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and New York City, shelter undocumented immigrants and do not adhere to federal immigration laws.
Trump also accused Mexico of flooding the U.S. with illegal immigrants and criminals.
“We are going to restore the rule of law in the United States … beginning today, the United States gets control of its borders,” Trump said.
Diplomatic tensions reached their peak after Trump followed through on his campaign promise to order a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Nieto responded to this announcement and others about strengthening the deportation force Thursday morning, stating his disapproval with the order.
“I regret and condemn the United States’ decision to continue with the construction of a wall that, for years now, far from uniting us, divides us,” he said in a video over Twitter.
Nieto restated his goals lie with protecting and defending the Mexican people and their interests.
Trump suggested in a tweet that he would cancel the meeting if Mexico did not agree to pay for the wall. Later that day, Nieto called off the meeting.
Following the cancellation, Trump’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, suggested the wall could be financed with a 20 percent tax on import goods from Mexico.
