Schwarzenegger blamed the Tuesday remark on his faulty command of English his second language and said he had intended to say the border should be secured.

"We hope that he won't be tripped up by his English again, and that this time around he has used the right English," Derbez told reporters in Mexico City, noting that the original comments "were wrong, an error and something we're not going to accept."

Schwarzenegger was referring to illegal immigration when he made the remark while speaking to newspaper editors and publishers in California on Tuesday.

"Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and in the United States," he said. "Because I think it is just unfair to have all those people coming across, have the borders open the way it is, and have this kind of lax situation."

But on Wednesday, he said "Yesterday was a total screw-up in the words I used. Because instead of closing, I meant securing. I think maybe my English, I need to go back to school and study a little bit."