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I saw a few headlines from more conservative news outlets about this. Mexico builds its own wall against migrants is the primary source but it's behind a paywall so I can't investigate on my own. Even if I was able to read the story, I'd want to see the story corroborated somewhere.

The claim (summarized in the Newsmax article Financial Times: US Gives Mexico $75M Aid for an Anti-Immigrant Wall) is that "the U.S. is sending Mexico $75 million in the form of equipment and training to help shore up its southern border." This would be to prevent migrants from Central American nations from entering Mexico, and the US would have an incentive to support it because those migrants would end up in the United States.

So,

  1. Is a wall being built?
  2. Is "The US" sending money?
  3. Who in the United States is sending money?
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  • The NewsMax source isn't the clearest writing. I couldn't work out whether the reference to an "invisible wall" was meant to be a metaphor or a physical wall.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Sep 19, 2016 at 16:03
  • @Oddthinking A physical invisible wall? Reading the link, it never crossed my mind that it was anything other than a metaphor.
    – ReasonablySkeptical
    Sep 19, 2016 at 19:08
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    @CPerkins: I wondered if they meant "real physical wall, whose planning has been hidden from the public eye". Looking back, this appears to be a classic case of "Headline Editor misreads article and makes claim that journalist never intended"
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Sep 20, 2016 at 1:32

2 Answers 2

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From page 15 of U.S.-Mexican Security Cooperation: The Mérida Initiative and Beyond

The State Department has provided $15 million in equipment and training assistance, including NII equipment, mobile kiosks, canine teams, and training for INAMI officials in the southern border region. It plans to spend at least $75 million in that area. The Department of Defense has provided training and equipment to Mexican military forces as well.

Additional information is provided in Increased Enforcement at Mexico's Southern Border: An Update on Security, Migration, and U.S. Assistance

(this is a 40 page report, so I can't quote everything)

Walls and barriers: In fall 2014, Ferrosur constructed a concrete wall topped with barbed wire that extends roughly one kilometer (approximately 0.6 miles) along the train tracks in Tierra Blanca, Veracruz. In addition to impeding migrants from accessing the train, the wall complicates migrants’ access to the Decanal Guadalupano migrant shelter, which has provided shelter and assistance to migrants since 2003. [65] Before the PFS was announced, Ferrosur had begun efforts to impede migrants from boarding the train. In 2013, the train company built a wall, similar to the wall in Tierra Blanca, to impede migrants’ access to the train in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.[reference 66] In 2012, Ferrosur lined both sides of the tracks in Apizaco, Tlaxcala with concrete posts, which has made it nearly impossible to board and disembark the train, and has resulted in numerous injuries

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No, it's building a metaphor. From the linked source:

Amid talk ..., Mexico itself has an invisible wall along its southern border with Central America as migrants head north.

(invisible wall)

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