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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — President Donald Trump ordered the construction of a border wall Wednesday, inching closer toward a campaign promise that threatens to fracture an already tense relationship with Mexico.

“We've been talking about this right from the beginning,” Trump said as he signed an executive order launching the process of building a physical wall between the United States and Mexico.

The action, taken less than a week before Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is scheduled to visit his US counterpart is already drawing calls for the meeting between the two to be cancelled.

A person familiar with the matter said that Peña Nieto is “considering” canceling the visit, but spoke on condition of anonymity because plans have not been finalized.

Construction of the concrete wall dividing the two countries, which Trump has said will be as high as 55 feet, was indeed one of his first promises on the campaign trail. Further rousing the ire of his southern neighbors, Trump, in the same speech where he announced he was running for president, accused Mexico of sending criminals and “rapists” across the border and promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, the majority of them Mexican.

But of all his pledges, the wall has become the most controversial in Mexico. After a visit to Mexico two months before the election, Trump and Peña Nieto engaged in a Twitter tit-for-tat over who would pay for the colossal project — Trump repeatedly insisted that Mexico would bear the financial burden — which is seen by many as an affront to Mexico’s dignity.

Trump and Peña Nieto are scheduled to meet next Tuesday. But some people said that Wednesday’s announcement should make the Mexican leader reconsider his tone and perhaps even the encounter.

“There shouldn’t even be an intention [on the part of Peña Nieto] to sit down and have a formal talk,” said Armando Rios Piter, a senator who has campaigned against Mexico paying for the wall, told BuzzFeed News, echoing dozens of Mexicans on Twitter.

Christian Torres / AP

The construction of the wall is “an act of enmity, a hostile act,” Rios Piter said. “Let’s not get lost in minutiae,” he added, speaking about who would finance the wall. Rios Piter has proposed instituting roadblocks in legislation so that no public funds go toward building the wall.

After his electoral triumph, Trump modified his initial stance, saying that he would use federal funds to pay for the wall and have Mexico reimburse the US later. One option he has suggested is through a tax on remittances, which totalled $24.8 billion in 2015.

“It’s a common sense, first step to really securing our porous border,” said White House secretary Sean Spicer Tuesday. “This will stem the flow of drugs, crime, illegal immigration into the United States.”

There are, in fact, long stretches of fence across the border already. In Ciudad Juarez, women stood on the bridge connecting the city to El Paso, TX., their hair braided together on Inauguration Day to protest the wall.

Peña Nieto had tried to soothe relations with the US for months, first inviting Trump to Mexico for a formal meeting in August and then naming Luis Videgaray as foreign minister. Videgaray reportedly orchestrated Trump's visit to Mexico and, following criticism from Mexicans, was forced to resign before making his way back into the cabinet.

This week, in an apparent attempt to ease fears that he was pandering to Trump by appointing Videgaray, who is believed to have close ties with his son-in-law and close advisor Jared Kushner, Peña Nieto said that the relationship between the two countries must be based on respect and aim toward integration.

“No confrontation and no submission. The solution is dialogue and negotiation,” said Peña Nieto.

On Monday, Peña Nieto outlined 10 objectives which will guide Mexico’s negotiations with the US. Among them are respect toward Mexican migrants, dignified deportations of them, and a joint effort to promote the the development of Central American nations, where unemployment and gang-related homicides have pushed thousands of people up through Mexico and into the US.

Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, the peso, which lost about 20% of its value last year — the second worst performing currency in the world post-Brexit UK — plummeted to a record low. Fear over the US pulling out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which Trump has threatened to do as part of his promise to “Make America Great Again,” has been a key factor in the currency’s decline.

Meanwhile, Videgaray and Minister of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo are scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday with Kushner, White House advisor Stephen Bannon, chief-of-staff Rience Priebus, and national security advisor Michael Flynn, among others top advisors, to speak about security, migration and commerce.

“There are very clear red lines that must be drawn from the start,” said Guajardo during an interview with the Televisa network Tuesday. Mexico is prepared to walk away from NAFTA if the terms are unfavorable during a possible renegotiation, he added.

But according to Politico, the delegation was caught unaware of the executive order that was due to be signed during the same day that they would engage in talks with the White House.

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