The Mexican president said she told Donald Trump that Mexico “will never accept the presence of the American military in our territory.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she rejected a proposal from her U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help fight drug trafficking.

Sheinbaum said at a public event on Saturday that Trump asked her on the phone how she could help fight organized crime and suggested sending U.S. troops.

The Mexican leader said she refused, telling Trump: “We will never accept the presence of the U.S. military in our territory.”

"I told him, 'No, President Trump, our territory is inviolable, our sovereignty is inviolable, our sovereignty is not for sale," Sheinbaum said.

Her comments were published in the Wall Street Journal that Trump forced Mexico to force "deeper American military involvement" in the fight against drug cartels.

News media quoted unnamed people familiar with the matter, saying in a call between the two leaders on April 16 that “tensions are rising” as Trump “pushed to have the U.S. armed forces fighting the Mexican drug gang that competes with fentanyl and smuggle fentanyl into the United States.”

Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly attacked Canada, another neighbor of Mexico and the United States for drug trafficking.

He accused the two countries of allowing illegal drugs, most notably fentanyl, to flow its borders to the United States.

The Trump administration is also working to impose huge tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods, among other factors.

On Saturday, Sheinbaum said she was willing to work with the United States in talks with Trump, including through more information sharing.

Meanwhile, the Mexican president said she urged Trump to stop cross-border arms trafficking, which led to a wave of violence that has caused more than 450,000 acts of violence in nearly two decades.

She added that Trump issued an order on Friday, “to ensure that all necessary prevent weapons from entering the United States and entering our country.”

Meanwhile, despite some legal challenges posed to his tough anti-immigration policy, Trump continues to push forward his plans to implement the “largest deportation action” in U.S. history.

The U.S. Department of Defense said earlier this week it designated a military zone that enforces immigration laws for the second time on its border with Mexico.

The latest area is located in Texas, USA and is attached to Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso.

Just like the first area established in New Mexico last month, military personnel were authorized to detain immigrants who crossed the border irregularly until they were transferred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s civil authorities.