Amid warnings from fellow Republicans of severe economic consequences, President Trump retreated from his threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to address the massive influx of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs.
He told reporters at the White House on Thursday he would instead give Mexico a “one-year warning,” Politico reported.
Before closing the border, he said he would first impose auto tariffs on America’s southern neighbor.
“The only thing frankly better, but less drastic than closing the border, is to tariff the cars coming in,” Trump said.
“We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’ll put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars.”
The president’s top immigration officials have warned that the immigration system has reached a breaking point. With processing and holding centers overwhelmed, the United States has expanded its practice of “catch and release” of illegal immigrant families.
On Monday, Trump said he was willing to absorb the economic impact of shutting down the border.
“Sure, it will have a negative effect on the economy,” he told reporters at the time. “It’s a very big trading partner. But to me, trading is very important, the borders are very important, but security is what is most important. I mean we have to have security.”
Since then, top economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said the administration is discussing alternative approaches to curbing the immigration surge that would have less impact on commerce. One possibility would be to ban cars but allow commercial trucks.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that closing the border is “not our first choice,” emphasizing Trump’s “number one priority is to protect life.”
Trump claimed to reporters Thursday that his threats alone have been effective.
“So for the last four days, and you actually have covered it to a minor extent, Mexico has been capturing people and bringing them back to their countries at their southern border,” he said. “They’ve been taking people under their very powerful laws — they have the right to do it — and bringing them back to where they came from. That is about three days now, I guess, since frankly since they heard I was going to close the border.”
Trump said Thursday that while tariff’s may be sufficient, he’s serious about his willingness to shut down the border.
“I will do it. You know I will do it, I don’t play games, I’ll do it,” he said.
Like a Cat 5 hurricane
Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday that he opposed shutting down the border. But he agreed there is a crisis.
“One-hundred thousand migrants in a month is a crisis,” Johnson said. “It’s a crisis in Central America. It’s a crisis for our border security personnel to try to deal with that. And it’s a crisis for the communities along the border that have to somehow absorb this population. … Now, the question becomes what to do about it. There are no quick fixes.”
On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said the administration is treating the surge like a category five hurricane, announcing former U.S. Border Patrol sector chief Manny Padilla has been appointed to coordinate the federal response to the crisis.
“While only legislation can fix this crisis in the long term, we cannot wait for Congress to act,” she said. “It is our duty to secure the homeland, enforce our immigration laws, and uphold our humanitarian obligations.”
Last week, Nielsen traveled to Honduras to meet with security officials from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. She left with what she described as an agreement to address a “system in free fall.”
“America shares common cause with the countries of Central America in confronting these challenges,” Nielsen said of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the four countries.
“We all want to enforce our laws, ensure a safe and orderly migrant flow, protect our communities, facilitate legal trade and travel, support vulnerable populations, interdict dangerous and illicit drug flow, and secure our borders,” she said.
DHS said the agreement combats human trafficking and smuggling, criminal organizations and gangs. It also expands intelligence sharing and strengthens border security.
Ramos: ‘Nobody can really stop them’
On Tuesday night, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos said the solution is simply to legalize illegal immigrants, because “nobody can really stop them” from entering the United States, Breitbart reported.
“The U.S. economy has been absorbing them and it seems that we have to realize that the only way to deal with this is in a legal way,” Ramos told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, the transfer of Border Patrol agents to immigration duties to handle the migrant surge had led to up to 12 hours of gridlock for truck drivers at several border crossings, Reuters reported.
On Wednesday, 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., introduced a bill to make children who came to the country with illegal-alien parents, so-called Dreamers, eligible to work as staffers or interns in Congress, Politico reported.
Harris, Politico said, is trying to seize the immigration issue from 2020 rival Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, the Spanish-speaking former congressman from El Paso, Texas.
Former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, announced a plan Tuesday to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants and reform immigration enforcement.
