Commuters queuing to cross Mexican border towards the US at the Otay commercial crossing port in Tijuana on July. — AFP
YUMA (USA): President Donald Trump said his administration may impose a "toll” on cars crossing into the US from Mexico to finance construction of his promised wall on the southern border.
"They’re going to pay at the border, at the gate, cars going through, we’re going to do a toll — or we may do a toll,” Trump said during an event in Yuma, Arizona, where he touted construction of the wall.
The president has long faced criticism that he has failed to meet a campaign promise to make Mexico pay for the border wall. He has instead re-directed billions of dollars from the Pentagon to finance construction, sparking a legal fight with the US House, which did not authorise the spending.
"Mexico is paying for the wall, yeah,” he said in answer to a reporter’s questions about the claim Mexico would finance construction. Mexican officials have said they will never pay for the wall.
He and other officials at the Yuma event declined to say how much the toll would be, and moments later Trump said "we may do it as a tax, money being sent into Mexico” — a reference to his occasional suggestion that the US may tax remittances to the country.
