--- title: Donald Trump Border Wall: How He'd Get Mexico to Pay for It description: Donald Trump said he will cut off money that immigrants send home to Mexico in order to force the country to pay for a border wall canonical: https://time.com/4281926/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-explanation/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-05T14:21:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:27:58.488Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Explains How He'd Get Mexico to Pay for a Border Wall og:description: Some have questioned whether the plan is legally feasible og:url: https://time.com/4281926/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-explanation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ecd9839652e1d88/69888dbc524fc02ed9df7731/donald-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3703 og:image:height: 2083 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Milwaukee, WI. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Explains How He'd Get Mexico to Pay for a Border Wall twitter:description: Some have questioned whether the plan is legally feasible twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ecd9839652e1d88/69888dbc524fc02ed9df7731/donald-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Explains How He'd Get Mexico to Pay for a Border Wall > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 5, 2016 2:21 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, WI on April 4. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, WI on April 4.Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 5, 2016 2:21 PM UTC Donald Trump [said he will cut off money](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-would-seek-to-block-money-transfers-to-force-mexico-to-fund-border-wall/2016/04/05/c0196314-fa7c-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3%5Fstory.html) that immigrants in the U.S. send home to Mexico in order to force the country to [pay for the wall](http://time.com/4237744/vicente-fox-donald-trump-wall-mexico/) he has proposed to build along the Mexican border. Trump detailed his plan for the first time in a memo sent to the Washington _Post_, the newspaper reported on Tuesday. The Republican frontrunner said he would change a rule under the USA Patriot Act antiterrorism law to limit remittances sent to Mexico, unless the country agreed to pay for the wall. The stream of money is seen as vital to Mexico’s economy. Some experts question whether Trump’s plan to cut it off is legally feasible, the _Post_ reported. [Read more in the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-would-seek-to-block-money-transfers-to-force-mexico-to-fund-border-wall/2016/04/05/c0196314-fa7c-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3%5Fstory.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4281926/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-explanation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4281926/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-explanation/"},"headline":"Trump Explains How He'd Get Mexico to Pay for a Border Wall","datePublished":"2016-04-05T14:21:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:27:58.488Z","description":"Some have questioned whether the plan is legally feasible","url":"https://time.com/4281926/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-explanation/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ecd9839652e1d88/69888dbc524fc02ed9df7731/donald-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ecd9839652e1d88/69888dbc524fc02ed9df7731/donald-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Milwaukee, WI.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Milwaukee, WI.","creditText":"Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4281926/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-explanation/","name":"Trump Explains How He'd Get Mexico to Pay for a Border Wall"}}]}] ```