Central American migrants -taking part in a caravan called Migrant Viacrucis rest at a sports center field in Matias Romero, Oaxaca state Mexico on April 2. 2018. AFP/Victoria Razo
President Donald Trump said the U.S. is "full” of people and can’t accommodate any more migrants from Latin America, capping a week of heated threats against Mexico over undocumented migration and the flow of illegal drugs.
"Our country is full. Our area is full. The sector is full,” Trump said at a briefing on border security in Calexico, California. "Can’t take you anymore. I’m sorry, turn around, that’s the way it is.”
Last week, Trump threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico to stop a spike in migration. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 66,450 who crossed the border illegally in February, an increase of more than 18,000 from the month before, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has said apprehensions approached 100,000 in March.
Trump retreated from the threat this week, after businesses and Republican lawmakers raised concerns about economic damage from closing the border. Instead, he said he’d impose tariffs on Mexican-built cars if the country doesn’t stem the flow of migrants and illegal drugs over the border in a year.
"I’m totally willing to close the border but Mexico over the last four days has done more than they’ve ever done,” Trump said in Calexico. "Apprehending people by the thousands and bringing them back to their countries.”
Mexican officials have said their immigration policies and enforcement practices haven’t changed this week.
Before departing the White House, Trump reiterated threats to hammer Mexico with tariffs or close the border if the country "stops apprehending and bringing the illegals back to where they came from.”
He also said in a tweet he’s "looking at an economic penalty for the 500 Billion Dollars in illegal DRUGS that are shipped and smuggled through Mexico and across our Southern Border.”
In his third trip to the border this year, Trump will view a portion of border wall in the city of Calexico and meet with local law enforcement, a setting he typically uses to reiterate his promises to crack down on undocumented immigration.
Barriers that mostly predate Trump’s presidency, ranging from 18-foot-tall iron fencing to makeshift vehicle obstacles and barbed wire, span 654 miles of the almost-2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, mostly in California, Arizona and New Mexico.
Congress last year approved $641 million for 33 to 37 miles of new fencing in Texas, and work on it began in mid-February. On Feb. 14, Congress approved $1.375 billion for about 55 miles of new fencing in Texas, but with restrictions such as using only current designs. Trump has said he’ll take billions more from elsewhere in the budget under an emergency declaration and use it for wall construction.
His Calexico visit comes at the end of a tumultuous week that laid bare Trump’s growing frustration and limitations in controlling the U.S. southern border. The administration’s botched efforts have ranged from an attempt to deter migration by separating migrant children from their families to ultimatums against Mexico that have proved too costly to enforce.
Changing Course
After the outcry from businesses and lawmakers, Trump abruptly changed course on closing the border.
"I don’t think we’ll ever have to close the border because the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Mexico at 25 percent will be massive,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
Trump has hammered on immigration since the day he launched his presidential campaign in 2015. It has remained one of the most divisive issues of his presidency and will certainly feature prominently in his 2020 re-election campaign. That’s been foreshadowed by rising tensions in recent weeks, as increasing numbers of migrants -- including an unprecedented number of families and unaccompanied children -- have sought to cross into the U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nieslen said Monday that the administration will expedite the return of migrants to Mexico and speed up plans to deploy additional personnel to the border. Nielsen, who visited the border and met with officials in Texas and Arizona this week, canceled plans to attend security meetings in France this week in order to accompany Trump to Calexico, an official said.
"Next step is to close the Border!,” Trump tweeted March 29, calling on Mexico to stop migrants trying to reach the U.S., where "detention areas are maxed out.” But by Tuesday, he suggested on Twitter that Mexico was heeding his demand: "Mexico is apprehending large numbers of people at their Southern Border.”
Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, told CNN Friday morning that Trump is to blame for the recent surge of people trying to cross the border into the U.S. by creating a self-fulfilling crisis.
"More are coming because of the president’s threats to use a national emergency to seal the border,” Merkley said.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters he didn’t know what prompted Trump’s message. Mexico’s migration policy has been consistent under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and there are no plans to change it, Ebrard said.
Border Closing
Closing U.S. entry points would have far-reaching economic consequences and hinder $1.7 billion in daily cross-border trade. Supply chains are closely integrated between the two countries, particularly in the auto industry. Carmakers and farmers, who have already been hit by Trump’s trade war with China, would suffer. The price of avocados already spiked this week.
The U.S., Canada and Mexico last year concluded a revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement that would limit U.S. auto tariffs against Mexico. The agreement is pending congressional approval. Trump indicated that he didn’t care whether the tariffs he threatened would violate the new trade deal, called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, saying Mexico would have to "live with it.”
Putting tariffs on Mexico-built autos would risk hurting companies including General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which import key models from the country including Chevrolet, GMC and Ram full-size pickups. The U.S. imported 41 percent more vehicles last year than in 2014, according to Commerce Department data.
Trump has also sparred with Congress on border security and is calling on lawmakers to revamp what he calls the worst immigration laws in the world. In February, he declared a national emergency to fund the construction of a border wall, after causing a 35-day government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, in a failed bid to get Congress to allocate the money. Lawmakers voted to oppose the declaration, prompting Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency.
