Ron DeSantis' Plan for Mexico to Pay for Border Wall

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis outlined his plan Friday to have Mexico fund the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, something that former President Donald Trump touted widely during his 2016 presidential campaign, but failed to enact.

DeSantis, who has served as governor of the Sunshine State since 2019, is currently among the packed field of candidates seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. While he has maintained a considerable lead over most other candidates, polls have consistently left him in second behind Trump, whose reelection effort has regularly drawn nearly 50 percent support from likely voters.

Throughout his campaign, DeSantis has been criticized for a seeming unwillingness to criticize Trump despite him being the most prominent candidate. Observers have suggested that the governor, and others in the field, are avoiding direct attacks against the former president out of fear of losing the potential support of his MAGA base.

On Friday, however, DeSantis went on the offensive against Trump in an interview with conservative commentator Ann Coulter, pledging to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and to effectively get Mexico to pay for it. This same plan was a key 2016 campaign promise for Trump, which he largely failed to enact.

"We have put this proposal out for going after the remittances," DeSantis said. "Basically, people will come to our country illegally, they'll work, and they will send the money back to family members in Mexico with no tax, no anything. So we're going to set up a system where that is going to be taxed, it'll almost be like an E-Verify for financial transactions, and that is going to make it to where, yes, you can use that to build the wall."

The presidential hopeful continued: "It will be effectively having Mexico pay for the wall. It will also, though, be a disincentive for illegal immigration, because it's not going to be as lucrative for them to come here and work and send the money back if Uncle Sam's going to take a chunk out of it."

In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Coulter hailed the strategy as a way for DeSantis to attack Trump without alienating his supporters.

"How does [Ron DeSantis] attack Trump without alienating his base?" Coulter wrote. "ANSWER: Attack him on nothing but immigration - he didn't build the wall, didn't deport illegals, didn't end anchor babies, didn't tax remittances to Mexico, etc. How does a true Trumpster oppose DeSantis for saying THAT?"

Newsweek reached out to the DeSantis campaign via email for comment.

Throughout Trump's first term, only a little over 450 miles of wall were constructed along the nearly 2,000-mile border, most of it places where a barrier of some sort was already in place. The construction of the wall was halted by President Joe Biden via executive order after he took office in 2021. Some of the wall portions were also criticized by observers for its build quality and effectiveness, with Border Patrol data showing that they were breached over 3,000 times between 2019 and 2022, The Washington Post reported last year.

Numerous Mexican leaders also balked at Trump's prominent pledge to get their country to pay for the construction, which never came to pass.

"I'm not gonna pay for that f*****g wall," former Mexican President Vicente Fox said in a February 2016 interview. "He should pay for it. He's got the money."