WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said Wednesday his country "will not pay for any wall," defying the claims US President Donald Trump has made. But he did not cancel his trip planned for the United States next week.

"Mexico does not believe in walls. I've said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall," he said in a video statement posted to Twitter and translated by CNN from Spanish.

Peña Nieto said he would wait for a final report from his top officials who arrived in Washington Wednesday to meet with the Trump administration, and previous meetings with Mexican legislators, before deciding which steps he would take next.

Peña Nieto also said he had ordered government agencies to step up protection for immigrants.

"I've asked for the minister of Foreign Relations to re-enforce protection measures to our citizens," he said. He added that the 50 Mexican Consulates in the US will be used to defend the rights of immigrants in the country. He also issued a call to action to legislators and civil organizations to help immigrants.

Peña Nieto closed his message by saying that Mexico offers and expects respect.

"Mexico offers its friendship to the people of the United States and expresses its wish to arrive at agreements with its government, deals that will be in favor of Mexico and the Mexicans," he said.

Earlier in the day, Trump signed two executive orders directing the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border, boosting border patrol forces and increasing the number of immigration enforcement officers who carry out deportations.

Meanwhile, the Mexican officials that arrived Wednesday are expected to lay the groundwork for Peña Nieto's visit next week, which Mexican diplomats see as an important opportunity to get past the anti-Mexico rhetoric Trump used during the campaign and a chance to put the US-Mexico relationship back on track.

"There is ... frustration with our government and ourselves that we have not been able to tell the story of this important relationship," a Mexican diplomat told CNN ahead of the visit. "There are a lot of stereotypes of Mexicans in the US, but there are also stereotypes of Americans in Mexico. It is in the interest of both governments to explain what this relationship is and what we can do together."

In a Monday speech, Peña Nieto said his government is prepared to negotiate with the US if Mexico's national sovereignty is respected. He laid out economic integration and respect for the rights of migrants and the money they send home as his nation's key negotiating points.

Trump has suggested some of the $25 billion in annual remittances that migrants return home would be retained to pay for the border wall -- a project Mexico opposes and which Peña Nieto has said Mexico would never pay for.

"Neither confrontation nor submission. Dialogue is the solution," Peña Nieto said Monday.

This won't be the first meeting for the two men. Trump flew to Mexico City during his campaign to meet Peña Nieto and said they discussed a wall Trump has vowed to build on the US southern border, but not his demand that Mexico pay for it -- an assertion the Mexican president later disputed.

"At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall," Peña Nieto tweeted, after their meeting.

The visit was widely viewed as a public relations disaster for Peña Nieto.</s>President Trump pledged to build a “great, great wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border. News reports indicate he will today sign an order to start building the wall. How would such a barrier, if built, affect cross-border higher education collaborations?

In some ways the direct impact could be minimal, as researchers and students crossing the border are generally doing so at designated border crossings, not jumping over the existing fence that already spans more than 650 miles of the 1,954-mile border, 1,279 miles of which run along the Colorado River and the Rio Grande (Trump told MSNBC last February that about 1,000 miles of wall would be needed because the rest of the border includes "natural barriers"). But while the wall itself might not prove a direct barrier to collaboration, some express concern about potential policy changes that could negatively affect U.S.-Mexico relations and the hostile message a wall could send to the U.S.’s southern neighbor.

“Much of that barrier already exists,” said Sean Manley-Casimir, executive director of the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), which has about 170 member universities, primarily from the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The association formed in the 1990s shortly after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has said he plans to renegotiate.

“It’s not an enormous change that he’s proposing in some respects. It is just a lot of noise,” Manley-Casimir said.

“But at the same time, I was at the ANUIES conference in Mexico City during the election and the day after when the results became evident,” he continued (ANUIES refers to Mexico’s National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions). “It was an interesting place to be at that time, because people were very somber …. I think many of them felt hurt by the fact that such a large number of people in the United States had supported a candidate who had such hostile rhetoric.”

In a statement after Trump’s election, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund issued a statement saying that Trump “had built his campaign around thinly veiled anti-immigrant and anti-Latino appeals.” In his kickoff speech for his presidential campaign, in June 2015, Trump described many Mexican immigrants as criminals or rapists. He said then, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best …. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump promised to deport millions of people living in the U.S. illegally -- more recently he has said he would focus on those with criminal records -- and said he would end an Obama-era program that granted temporary protection from deportation and work permits to young people, many of them college students, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children (he has since softened his tone somewhat, even as his administration’s exact plans for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program remain unclear).

Meanwhile, Trump’s signature promise to build a border wall, and to make Mexico pay the billions of dollars it would cost, was a rallying point for many of his supporters. “Build that wall” was a recurrent chant at his campaign events.

“The wall is symbolic,” said Josiah Heyman, director of the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies and a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso, which sits just across the border from the Mexican city of Juárez. “It’s the United States turning its back on Mexico. I think that could erode the good relationships that we’ve built with Mexican students and with Mexican scholars.”

“I hope these relationships are resilient,” said Heyman, who is currently researching sustainable water use and agricultural irrigation in the border region. His research on a binationally shared water basin brings him to another point: “The wall is a kind of symbol that says everything just literally stops at the territorial border, but the local air shed for air pollution or the ground river or the river water don’t stop at the border,” he said.

“We can’t go into the future with what could be called a wall mentality, which is that scientifically and socially and economically important issues are stopped at the border.”

The Obama administration attempted to promote higher education exchange with Mexico through the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research, known as FOBESII, and the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund, the latter a public-private partnership that provides grant funding for higher education partnerships throughout the Americas (not just between Mexico and the U.S.). NAFSA: Association of International Educators, one of the private-sector partners for the fund, said in a statement that the 100,000 Strong program will continue in the near term.

“To date, there have been no changes to the program, and with diplomacy so vital between the United States and Latin America, the connections among the institutions brought about by this program will hopefully help bridge gaps in foreign policy for decades to come,” NAFSA's statement said. “Seventy-five percent of the funding for the program is from sources outside of the United States federal government. There are commitments from private-sector partners that will ensure the Innovation Fund will continue through at least the end of 2018, and because an NGO -- Partners of the Americas -- serves as the fiduciary agent for the grant competitions, we expect the initiative to grow and continue to thrive over the coming years.”

Fernando León García is the president of Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior, usually called CETYS, which has three campuses in the Mexican state of Baja California, just over the border with California. The private university is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ Senior College and University Commission and has about 350 U.S.-based students who commute across the border from California to study there.

“In terms of the proposed wall, a fence or wall so to speak already exists (it has existed for many years), and this has not been a deterrent for colleges and universities to promote and implement cross-border collaboration,” León García said via email. “The foundation and progress of said cross-border initiatives are such that collaboration is likely to continue. The dynamics of cross-border collaboration have increasingly become intertwined such that in addition to activities between colleges and universities in the U.S. and Mexico, there are also a growing number of initiatives that involve said institutions joining forces to address the challenges of multinational companies located along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.”

“It is unclear exactly what measures and when the Trump administration will be implementing (e.g., the wall or stepping back on DACA),” León García added. “But it is evident that higher education institutions are committed to continue the dialogue and promote cross-border collaboration as the basis to develop a global and diverse perspective and greater international understanding, leading to more globally competitive students.”

At the University of Monterrey, a Roman Catholic institution in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, the U.S. is the second most popular study abroad destination, after Spain. “I have concerns with the anti-Mexican rhetoric, but as far as our work is concerned, we have an attitude that we have to wait and see how it develops,” said Thomas M. Buntru, the director of international programs.

“To be honest,” he said, “anti-Mexican attitudes in the U.S. are nothing new. … The rhetoric is a bit more crude, let’s put it that way, but I think we’ve been dealing with that for a long time. I’m not concerned about the physical safety of our students at this point in time. We’ll just have to wait and see how this all develops.”

Gary Edens is vice president for student affairs at the University of Texas at El Paso, which has about 500 students who commute to campus across the border from Juárez -- typically about a two-hour process -- out of a total population of about 1,100 Mexican students. Edens expressed a similar wait-and-see mentality about the possible effects of a wall.

“We already have a fence,” Edens said. “Most of the El Paso city area has a fence that separates us from the border. I think everybody on our campus is in a wait-and-see mode. We clearly have been very closely following all the rhetoric that’s come out of D.C. and happened during the election, but there’s not a whole lot of specificity yet. This community has dealt with the political rhetoric around immigration for decades.”

Edens added, “I think the biggest factor right now for our students from Mexico is actually the peso devaluation. Any time that happens to the peso, it affects the out-of-pocket costs for students.”

“I haven’t heard much about the wall. Clearly our students are always concerned about their ability to cross into the United States, to get their appropriate visas, but until we have more definition about what changes will happen, there’s not much more we can do,” Edens said.

Richard Lange is president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso. He thinks the proposed wall is a waste of money and resources, but said it’s unlikely to influence the institution’s work. “Because the health on both sides of the border affects the other entity, it’s imperative that we have free exchange of ideas and free exchange of information regarding health issues and diseases and that we collaborate institution-wise and research-wise as well,” Lange said. “Will a wall stop that? No. That occurs through normal exchange, through normal points of entry on either side, and with bilateral communication and collaboration. Walls won’t stop that, and they shouldn’t.”

At the same time, Lange said, “if there’s a change in policy in how we interact with our neighbors, that’s where the impact would occur.”

“That’s the wall I’m concerned about,” he said. “Not a physical wall, but a wall that prevents us from being good neighbors.”</s>(MEXICO CITY) — A senior government official says Mexico's president is "considering" canceling next week's visit to Washington following President Donald Trump's order to begin construction of a wall between the two countries.

The decision to rethink the visit comes amid growing outrage in Mexico, and a sense among many that President Enrique Pena Nieto has been too weak in the face of Trump's tough policy stance.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration "is considering" scrapping the Jan. 31 visit. "That's what I can tell you."</s>WASHINGTON — Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval joined a growing number of officials Wednesday who dismissed the effectiveness of building a wall along the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico.

President Donald Trump announced his intentions to construct a barrier as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration, and to fulfill a campaign promise that energized his Republican base.

Others, however, were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of spending more than $20 billion to erect structures along a border that spans four U.S. states.

“On my list of things to be done, that wouldn’t be one of them,” Sandoval told an audience attending a National Governors Association meeting at the Newseum in Washington.

Sandoval, the vice chairman of the NGA, said there are other more important things to spend time and energy on.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, NGA chairman, was even more blunt on his assessment.

McAuliffe said building a $20 billion wall “is not immigration policy.” He added that the rhetoric during the campaign surrounding the pledge to build the barrier was divisive.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., called the wall a gimmick by a president whose approval ratings are the lowest of any recent president taking office.

“It is a stunt to galvanize his supporters and a transparent attempt to boost his low poll numbers,” Titus said.

Trump has claimed Mexico will pay for the border wall, even though Mexican officials have scoffed at the idea.

The executive order for the wall was signed on the day that Luis Videgaray, Mexico’s foreign minister, arrived in Washington to prepare for a visit next week by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said Trump is moving forward on “an incredibly costly and ineffective border wall that will do nothing to improve our national security and that Mexico will never pay for.”

“Make no mistake: I firmly believe in securing our border. However, I am afraid this is just the first step in what will be a pattern from the Trump administration of putting tough talk ahead of smart, thoughtful immigration policy,” Cortez Masto said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico, posted a picture on Twitter holding a sign that said “I stand with New Americans, #NoBanNoWall.”

“President Trump’s actions today are wrong for immigrant families, wrong for our values, and wrong for our country,” Kihuen said in a statement. “Rather than rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create millions of jobs, President Trump is throwing money down the drain for a wall that will not work. Instead of working to heal, the president is choosing to divide, doubling down on anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.</s>SAN DIEGO – Elected officials in San Diego and throughout the state wasted no time Wednesday lashing out at President Donald Trump’s executive actions calling for construction of a wall along the Mexican border and slashing funding for so-called “sanctuary” cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

“SD already has a border built by the Feds. Crossborder trade creates jobs. Our binational economic & cultural ties have my full support,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer tweeted.

Faulconer, a Republican, has boosted San Diego and Tijuana as a binational region and consistently opposed Trump on the issue.

Taking part in a conference call conducted by immigrant rights advocates, San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward said the president’s actions will reduce safety in the border cities.

“Patrolling them with tens of thousands of heavily armed, unaccountable agents puts our lives at risk and it will turn our communities into military zones,” Ward said.

“Trust between the community and local law enforcement is essential for everyone’s security,” he said. “Policies that direct local law enforcement to participate in border enforcement — that includes interrogating people on their way to school, work and other destinations — erodes this trust.”

Ward said the president’s actions against sanctuary cities “threatens the sovereignty of local officials to manage our affairs and protect our communities.”

Building a border wall was a hallmark of Trump’s presidential campaign, and he continues to insist that although the United States will be moving ahead with construction, Mexico will ultimately foot the bill — something Mexican leaders have steadfastly denied.

In a speech, the president said construction would begin immediately on a wall that is “so badly needed.” He also said he wants to hire 5,000 new agents for the U.S. Border Patrol and remove immigrant criminal offenders to their countries of origin.

Fences already exist along much of the border with Mexico, including San Diego. Other areas are patrolled by Border Patrol agents or observed via remote cameras.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a Democrat who represents southern San Diego County, said Trump’s actions run contrary to basic American values of compassion and inclusion.

“He will jeopardize the lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children who are in harm’s way,” Gonzalez Fletcher said.

“Forcing police to freelance as border agents doesn’t make our communities safer, nor neither does wasting billions of American tax dollars to further divide our binational community with a border wall,” she said. “This is embarrassingly un-American.”

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Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said Trump’s orders will “harm public safety, tear families apart and jeopardize national security.”

“Forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for a wall isn’t a solution, it’s a political gesture,” Harris said. “And telling cities they must deny public safety, education and health care services to children and families living within their jurisdiction will not make us more secure, it will mean fewer crimes reported and more families living in fear.

In its first few days, this new administration has consistently acted against the interests of those who are voiceless and vulnerable,” she said.</s>US President Donald Trump on Thursday agreed to cancel the meeting with Mexican President Pena Nieto saying it would be fruitless if Mexico doesn’t treat the US fairly by not paying for the wall. Nieto had earlier scrapped plans to meet Trump next week after the US president tweeted Mexico should cancel the meeting if it was not prepared to pay for his proposed border wall.

Speaking at a press conference in Philadelphia, Trump also assured the American citizens that they would not have to pay for the wall. “Border security is a serious national issue and problem. Most illegal immigration is coming from our southern border. American people will not pay for the wall. I’ve made it clear to the government of Mexico,” the Republican President said. The press conference was attended by Vice-President Mike Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. Trump also said he would no longer allow the world “to take advantage of America” adding that he would restore the civil rights of Americans.

Trump had earlier signed an executive order to move forward on construction of a border wall. “We are putting an end to catch and release, expediting the removal of criminal aliens. They’re gonna be gone fast. We are finally cracking down on sanctuary cities. Its time to restore civil rights of Americans for a better future. Its about time to properly enforce laws passed by congress,” he said. Adding that North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had been a terrible deal, Trump said it “had been a total disaster since its inception costing $60 billion with Mexico alone in trade deficits.”

Apart from this, the US President Trump also spoke on US’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific partnership adding there would still be “a lot of trade deals.” The president had earlier pulled out US from the 12-member Pacific-Rim agreement as he deemed it to be “dangerous for American workers.” As an alternative, Trump plans to negotiate with the nations individually.

“I have taken steps to restore power to everyday Americans,” Trump said. “This congress is going to be the busiest congress in years. Or maybe even decades.”</s>Washington, Jan 26: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday if Mexico wont pay for the wall between the two countries aimed at curbing the flow of illegal migrants into America, "it would be better" to scrap his planned visit to Mexico.

"If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting (with Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nietro)," Trump said.

"The US has a $60 billion trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers... of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting," Trump tweeted.

On Wednesday, Trump signed orders to stem illegal immigration from Mexico and secure the US border.

Though the US would initially pay for the construction, Trump vowed that Mexico will have to compensate the entire expenditures. The plan did not sit well with the Mexican leader.

"I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us," Nieto on Wednesday said in a brief televised message to his nation. Nieto stressed that his country "will not pay for any wall."</s>Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday canceled a meeting with US President Donald Trump that had been set for Tuesday after renewed tensions over Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border.

“This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the POTUS,” Peña Nieto tweeted.

Earlier Thursday morning, Trump had tweeted that it would be better to skip the meeting if Peña Nieto continued to insist Mexico would not pay for the wall, which he had again said as recently as Wednesday evening.

Trump’s pushback came after Peña Nieto said — again — on Wednesday that his country “will not pay for any wall,” Trump tweeted that they should just skip their planned meeting at the White House.

“If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting,” Trump tweeted.

In an earlier tweet, he noted the US’s trade deficit with Mexico and what he said were the American job losses caused by NAFTA.

On Wednesday night, Pena Nieto had said he did not see a need to cancel his trip — but reiterated that he wouldn’t fund the wall.

“Mexico does not believe in walls. I’ve said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall,” he said in a video statement posted to Twitter and translated by CNN from Spanish.

The back-and-forth between the two leaders — which began last year during the very first days of the Trump campaign when he called some Mexicans entering the US criminals and rapists and tensions lingered throughout the campaign. They escalated over the last 24 hours when Trump took executive action on Wednesday to begin the process of erecting a wall.

The President announced the move while a high-level Mexican delegation was visiting the White House — the first foreign representatives to visit since Trump took office — for meetings with top officials, including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and adviser Jared Kushner.

Peña Nieto said he would wait for a final report from his top officials in Washington, and previous meetings with Mexican legislators, before deciding which steps he would take next.

Peña Nieto also said he had ordered government agencies to step up protection for immigrants.

“I’ve asked for the minister of Foreign Relations to re-enforce protection measures to our citizens,” he said. He added that the 50 Mexican Consulates in the US will be used to defend the rights of immigrants in the country. He also issued a call to action to legislators and civil organizations to help immigrants.

Peña Nieto closed his message by saying that Mexico offers and expects respect.

“Mexico offers its friendship to the people of the United States and expresses its wish to arrive at agreements with its government, deals that will be in favor of Mexico and the Mexicans,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Trump signed two executive orders directing the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border, boosting border patrol forces and increasing the number of immigration enforcement officers who carry out deportations.

Meanwhile, the Mexican officials that arrived Wednesday were expected to lay the groundwork for Peña Nieto’s visit next week, which Mexican diplomats see as an important opportunity to get past the anti-Mexico rhetoric Trump used during the campaign and a chance to put the US-Mexico relationship back on track.

“There is … frustration with our government and ourselves that we have not been able to tell the story of this important relationship,” a Mexican diplomat told CNN ahead of the visit. “There are a lot of stereotypes of Mexicans in the US, but there are also stereotypes of Americans in Mexico. It is in the interest of both governments to explain what this relationship is and what we can do together.”

In a Monday speech, Peña Nieto said his government is prepared to negotiate with the US if Mexico’s national sovereignty is respected. He laid out economic integration and respect for the rights of migrants and the money they send home as his nation’s key negotiating points.

Trump has suggested some of the $25 billion in annual remittances that migrants return home would be retained to pay for the border wall — a project Mexico opposes and which Peña Nieto has said Mexico would never pay for.

“Neither confrontation nor submission. Dialogue is the solution,” Peña Nieto said Monday.

This won’t be the first meeting for the two men. Trump flew to Mexico City during his campaign to meet Peña Nieto and said they discussed a wall Trump has vowed to build on the US southern border, but not his demand that Mexico pay for it — an assertion the Mexican president later disputed.

“At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall,” Peña Nieto tweeted, after their meeting.

The visit was widely viewed as a public relations disaster for Peña Nieto.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will begin rolling out executive actions on immigration Wednesday, beginning with steps to build his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two administration officials. He’s also expected to target so-called sanctuary cities and is reviewing proposals that would restrict the flow of refugees to the United States.

The president is expected to sign the first actions — including the measure to jumpstart construction of the wall — Wednesday during a trip to the Department of Homeland Security. Additional actions will be rolled out over the next few days, according to one official.

Trump is said to still be weighing the details of plans to restrict refugees coming to the U.S. The current proposal includes at least a four-month halt on all refugee admissions, as well as temporary ban on people coming from some Muslim majority countries, according to a representative of a public policy organization that monitors refugee issues. The person was briefed on the details of that proposed action by a government official and outlined the expected steps for The Associated Press.

The officials and the public policy organization’s representative insisted on anonymity in order to outline the plans ahead of Trump’s official announcements.

On his personal Twitter account Tuesday night, Trump tweeted: “Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!”

Trump campaigned on pledges to tighten U.S. immigration policies, including beefing up border security and stemming the flow of refugees. He also called for halting entry to the U.S. from Muslim countries, but later shifted the policy to a focus on what he called “extreme vetting” for those coming from countries with terrorism ties.

While the specific of Trump’s orders were unclear, both administration officials said Wednesday’s actions would focus in part on the president’s plans to construct a wall along the southern border with Mexico. He’s also expected to move forward with plans to curb funding of cities that don’t arrest or detain immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, which could cost individual jurisdictions millions of dollars.

Trump’s insistence that Mexico would pay for the wall was among his most popular proposals on the campaign trail, sparking enthusiastic cheers at his raucous rallies. Mexico has repeatedly said it will not pay for any border wall.

Earlier this month, Trump said the building project would initially be paid for with a congressionally approved spending bill and Mexico will eventually reimburse the U.S., though he has not specified how he would guarantee payments.

Trump will meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the White House next week.

In claiming authority to build a wall, Trump may rely on a 2006 law that authorized several hundred miles of fencing along the 2,000-mile frontier. That bill led to the construction of about 700 miles of various kinds of fencing designed to block both vehicles and pedestrians.

The Secure Fence Act was signed by then-President George W. Bush and the majority of the fencing in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California was built before he left office. The last remnants were completed after President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

The Trump administration also must adhere to a decades-old border treaty with Mexico that limits where and how structures can be built along the border. The 1970 treaty requires that structures cannot disrupt the flow of the rivers, which define the U.S.-Mexican border along Texas and 24 miles in Arizona, according to The International Boundary and Water Commission, a joint U.S.-Mexican agency that administers the treaty.

It appeared as though the refugee restrictions were still to be finalized. The person briefed on the proposals said they included a ban on entry to the U.S. for at least 30 days from countries including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, though the person cautioned the details could still change.

There is also likely to be an exception in the refugee stoppage for those fleeing religious persecution if their religion is a minority in their country. That exception could cover Christians fleeing Muslim-majority nations.

As president, Trump can use an executive order to halt refugee processing. President George W. Bush used that same power in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Refugee security vetting was reviewed and the process was restarted several months later.

Other executive actions expected Wednesday include bolstering border patrol agents and ending what Republicans have argued is a catch-and-release system at the border. Currently, some immigrants caught crossing the border illegally are given notices to report back to immigration officials at a later date.

If Trump’s actions would result in those caught being immediately jailed, the administration would have to grapple with how to pay for jail space to detain everyone and what to do with children caught crossing the border with their parents.

Zoll reported from New York. AP writer Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON– President Donald Trump signed executive actions to advance approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, he announced from the White House on Tuesday.

The decision to advance the pipelines would cast aside efforts by President Barack Obama’s administration to block construction of the two pipelines, while making good on one of Trump’s campaign promises.

Trump during his campaign said he would streamline the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which was stalled for years in the Obama administration until Obama denied approval for the pipeline’s construction altogether in November 2015.

And Trump said for the first time in December that he supported construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which stalled last year amid protests opposing its construction on Native American lands. The Obama administration denied the company a permit it needed to complete the pipeline late last year.

Trump said during the campaign that he not only wanted to quickly approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would shuttle oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, but also wanted to push for a deal that would grant US taxpayers a share of the profits. Trump said that the US would approve the pipeline while also seeking a “better deal.”

Trump’s approval of both pipelines are early signs of how his administration will take a drastically different approach to energy and environmental issues. Beyond approving the pipelines, Trump has also vowed to slash environmental protection regulations and has nominated several skeptics of the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change to key Cabinet posts dealing with environmental issues.

By approving the Dakota Access pipeline, Trump is also likely to spark a new wave of protests over the issue.

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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto rejects the idea, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, that Mexico would pay for any border wall between the United States and his country.