‘Next step is to close the border!’ Trump warns he’ll shut off ALL U.S. crossings if Mexico doesn’t stop caravans because ‘we will take no more illegals’
President is threatening to close the U.S.-Mexico border completely
Sealing Mexico off from the U.S. would impact immigration – both illegal and legal – along with the narcotics trade
Would also affect billions of dollars of trade
Homeland Security Department wants immigration laws changed, including a measure that woud allow Central Americans to apply for asylum where they live
By DAVID MARTOSKO
DAILYMAIL.COM
1 April 2019
President Donald Trump on Monday renewed his warning that he would completely close America’s southern border if Mexico doesn’t immediately take steps to choke off the northward flow of migrants into the United States, including tens of thousands of asylum-seekers.
‘Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA,’ Trump wrote Saturday on Twitter. He retweeted the message Monday morning for emphasis.
‘Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!’
Such a move would not be unprecedented: Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan both shut the border temporarily over drug-related issues and Lyndon Johnson closed it briefly in 1963 after the Kennedy assassination.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday in a letter to Congress that she plans to propose legislation allowing her to return unaccompanied immigrant children home, to keep migrant families in custody together during the immigration process and to allow people seeking asylum to make their applications from Central America instead of first traveling 2,000 miles on foot.
For Trump, who aims to score political points, that does not appear to be enough.
‘Democrats, working with Republicans in Congress, can fix the Asylum and other loopholes quickly. We have a major National Emergency at our Border. GET IT DONE NOW!’ he tweeted Monday.
Closing the U.S.-Mexico border would impact both illegal immigration and the illicit narcotics trade, Trump said.
But it would also have an impact on legal business and tourism crossings, along with day-laborers who enter the U.S. weekly or monthly with legal papers.
And cargo traveling north wouldn’t be able to reach the U.S., triggering consequences for billions of dollars in trade that policymakers haven’t yet addressed.
It’s unclear if closing official ports of entry would have any impact at all on illegal border crossings in hundreds of miles of undedenfed border.
While cars lined up on Sunday at border checkpoints as Mexicans and others traveling there hustled to get back into the U.S., Trump was tweeting.
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