Kellyanne Conway says Mexico wants 'to continue to allow people and I assume drugs' into America

(Image credit: Screenshot/CBS)

published 27 January 2017

Mexico does not want to pay for a wall along its border with the United States because the structure would interfere with illegal exports and immigration, argued Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, in an interview with CBS anchor Gayle King on Friday.

"Well they don't want it, Gayle, because they want to continue to allow people and I assume drugs, since they're not doing much to stop that, pouring over our borders," Conway said in answer to a question about why America's southern neighbor should pay for a wall it does not support. "We have to look at America," Conway continued. "Mexico should pay for that wall because they get an awful lot from this country through NAFTA and through other monetary disbursements."

Those "other monetary disbursements" include money sent home by Mexican immigrants to America and other countries who share part of their earnings with family members who did not emigrate. As Conway noted, these disbursements are a major part of Mexico's economy, amounting to more than its oil exports earned in 2015, which means the Trump administration would have serious leverage should it choose to target such payments. Watch Conway's comments in context below. Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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