Trump says ‘toll’ on U.S.-Mexico border crossings may fund wall
YUMA, Arizona -- President Donald Trump delivered a wide-ranging speech in Yuma to a crowd that resembled what some of his campaign rallies looked like earlier this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic — with little to no social distancing or masks among his supporters.
In a speech accepting the endorsement of the National Border Patrol Council, Trump suggested that his administration may impose a toll at border crossings on cars coming into the U.S. from Mexico to help fund his border wall construction.
"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," said Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that Mexico would pay for the border wall, one of his signature campaign promises four years ago.
At Tuesday's event, Trump pushed for four more years in the White House and praised Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, for knocking out Covid-19, even as the state battles another surge.
“I want to congratulate your governor. Because we had a spike and he knocked that spike out so fast. … Are you sure you even had a spike?” Trump asked.
The President reserved a large portion of his speech near the U.S.-Mexico border for attempting to compare his immigration policies to the Democratic Party’s stance.
“Joe Biden is the puppet of the radical left-wing movement that seeks the complete elimination of America’s borders and boundaries. They want to take the wall down. They don’t want to have borders. They want to have sanctuary cities,” Trump claimed.
Listing his immigration accomplishments, the President touted the elimination of “birth tourism” leading to “anchor babies” — a loaded term used to refer to children purposefully delivered in the U.S. by foreign mothers in order to obtain U.S. citizenship.
“We issued regulations to stop the horrible practice of birth tourism. You know what that is, right? Anchor babies … Have a baby in our country and you’ll stay for the rest of your life. Congratulations, you’re a citizen for 90 years,” Trump said.
