Trump border closing? Republicans, Chamber of Commerce question president’s latest threat
JOHN FRITZE AND ELIZA COLLINS | USA TODAY | 2 hours ago
President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to close the nation’s Mexican border or large sections of it next week, a potentially drastic step affecting both nations’ economies, if Mexico does not halt illegal immigration at once. (March 29)
AP
WASHINGTON – Border-state Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce balked Monday at President Donald Trump’s latest threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing the move would damage the nation’s economy.
Frustrated by an influx of migrant families arriving from Central America, Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric on sealing the border, threatening that his administration could close ports as early as this week if Mexico doesn’t do more to stem the flow of arrivals.
But a number of Republicans representing border states urged caution, noting Mexico was the nation’s third-largest trading partner last year. Others, including Republican leaders, stayed quiet as they sought to assess the seriousness of Trump’s threat, which he has made previously without following through.
“The president made that statement out of frustration. I don’t think he’s going to actually shut off the border,” Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told a forum in Washington on Monday.
“It would have a significant impact on our economy,” he added.
“I understand the president’s frustration, but the unintended consequences of that, I think, would be bad for everybody,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Several Republicans on Capitol Hill didn’t seem to see the president’s threat as something immediate and instead focused on the need to deal with immigration.
“What do you mean, shut it down?” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., responded when asked about Trump’s threat.
White House officials did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
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President Trump holds campaign rally in Michigan
Illegal immigration remains lower than it was during the 1990s and 2000s, when Border Patrol agents regularly apprehended more than 1 million undocumented immigrants a year at the southern border. But the administration has pointed to a spike in Central American families making the journey north.
In February, Border Patrol agents apprehended 66,450 people illegally crossing the southern border. A record high 36,174 of those (54%) were members of families and 6,825 (10%) were unaccompanied minors, according to Border Patrol data.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Trump said there is a “very good likelihood that I’ll be closing the border next week” to address the issue. White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the administration would need to see “something dramatic” to hold short of sealing the U.S. Mexico-border.
The idea has drawn tepid a response from some within Trump’s party.
“It’s my view that we’ve got to keep the legitimate trade and travel and cross-border commerce happening at the ports entry while we also need to secure our border and address this crisis,” Sen. Martha McSally, R-Arizona, told reporters Monday.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wouldn’t directly say whether he would support closing the border.
“What the president seems to be doing right now is trying to work with Mexico and with Central America, and say, ‘If we don’t find a way to work together to stop this, then I’m going to have to find a way that’s a blunt object to do it,’” Lankford said.
At least one Democrat said the threat of border closure was real.
“I think you’ve gotta take him seriously,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also weighed in Monday, urging the administration to consider the costs to domestic exporters. The leading business organization said it shared the administration’s concern about a “massive influx of migrants” but said the best response is for Congress to attempt a broader overhaul of immigration law.
Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA. 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2019
"Even threatening to close the border to legitimate commerce and travel creates a degree of economic uncertainty that risks compromising the very gains in growth and productivity that policies of the Trump administration have helped achieve,” said Neil Bradley, the group’s executive vice president and chief policy officer.
The Commerce Department estimates $502 billion in goods crossed the border in trucks and trains last year, roughly $1.4 billion a day. That doesn’t include products shipped by air and sea.
Administration officials have said the border has reached its “breaking point,” forcing Customs and Border Protection to use extreme measures to keep up. One of those changes has been to start releasing migrants into the streets of border communities, breaking with the administration’s practice of detaining them as long as possible.
Trump’s proposal has met with support from some Republicans, while many others have not commented. Some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, initially advised Trump against declaring an emergency at the border to free up federal funding for the wall, but then backed the move once Trump acted.
“Well, I mean, what are we supposed to do?” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally told “Fox News Sunday.” “So if the president feels like that the only way to control this problem is to move the people from the port of entry to the ungoverned spaces where we need a wall, I will support him. I hope we don’t have to do that.”
Trump threatened to close the border several times last year, but the administration did not follow through on the threat.
“Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries,” Trump tweeted in late November. “We will close the Border permanently if need be.”
Originally Published 3 hours ago
Updated 1 hour
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POLITICO
Trump bewilders GOP allies on immigration ahead of border visit
As the administration weighs immigration actions, even Trump officials and Hill Republicans aren’t sure what to make of his talk of closing the Mexican border.
By ANITA KUMAR, TED HESSON and BURGESS EVERETT
04/01/2019 07:55 PM EDT
Donald Trump
Some Hill Republicans warned that any dramatic disruption to regular traffic across the U.S.-Mexico border could bring President Donald Trump into a new confrontation with his own party. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo
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President Donald Trump is thrusting his hardline posture on immigration back to the fore this week, with plans for a Friday trip to the southern border and possible new executive actions to restrict border crossings.
But days after Trump renewed his longstanding threat to shut down the southern border entirely, even administration officials and congressional Republicans were bewildered and guessing at his next move on a defining issue of his presidency.
And some Hill Republicans warned that any dramatic disruption to regular traffic across the U.S.-Mexico border could bring Trump into a new confrontation with his own party, whose leaders warn that closing parts or all of the border would wreak economic havoc.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to require that greater numbers of non-Mexican asylum seekers stay in Mexico while they wait for their cases to be resolved and to speed up the reassignment of 750 customs officers to process arriving migrants.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is considering closing some of the lanes at ports of entry or preventing certain types of vehicles or people from crossing the border as he tries to force Mexico to increase its enforcement, three outside advisers told POLITICO.
“He’s trying to get Mexico’s attention,” said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for tighter restrictions on immigration.
The administration already has taken some of those actions, though they have gotten little attention. Customs and Border Protection said in a March 29 memo to shipping companies, importers and other businesses that it would halt a Sunday screening program for commercial trucks at a Nogales port of entry and blamed an “unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis” for the cutback.
The administration is considering ways to reduce the number of people crossing into the U.S. That could mean closing some lanes at ports of entry or limiting who is allowed to cross to day workers only. Another proposal under discussion would bar passenger vehicles — but not commercial trucks — from crossing the border.
But closing the border or even limiting the flow of people through the ports of entry would not prevent migrants from attempting to cross the border illegally.
Even some people close to the White House called Trump’s remarks “bluster” and predicted he would not close off the border from one of its largest trading partners. Mexico is the United States’s third-largest trading partner with more than $600 billion in cross-border trade last year.
“I understand the president’s frustration but the unintended consequences of that would be bad for everybody: economic, diplomatic,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who questioned how such a move could disrupt negotiations with Mexico to handle migrations from the Northern Triangle. “I take him very seriously. But I think we should have a longer conversation about unintended consequences.”
“It’s part of the way he negotiates but I’m not sure that’s a particularly good idea and I’m not sure it gets the desired result,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota of the potential closed border. “Tactically it doesn’t get a result and probably has a lot of unintended consequences … there’s a lot of bilateral trade at the border.”
Trump will travel to Calexico, Calif., to tour the border on Friday on west coast swing that also includes 2020 campaign fundraising. The White House has not disclosed details of the trip.
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Asked whether he thinks Trump is serious about closing the border, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) replied: “Oh, I have no idea. You’d need to ask him that.”
Trump has made cracking down on immigration a central theme of his presidency but has struggled to get his proposals past Congressional Republicans. In February, he declared a national emergency to unlock Pentagon funds he can unilaterally steer to a border wall as well as use money from other projects. That action was immediately challenged in court.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he takes the president “seriously” and wants more details about how it would affect trade and the economy. Romney was one of a dozen Republicans who rebuffed Trump’s emergency request last month, revealing a sharp intraparty divide over border politics.
Most Republicans agree there is a crisis on the border but disagree with tactics like closing ports of entry and the emergency request.
According to a current and a former DHS official familiar with the situation, Trump is once again considering creating a so-called immigration czar, a single person in charge of an issue that impacts a dozen departments and agencies, including Homeland Security, State, Justice, Labor, Housing and Health and Human Services. The position would not need Senate confirmation.
Some of the people being considered are Francis Cissna, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services; Thomas Douglas Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, according to the former DHS official. Michael Neifach, who worked for former President George W. Bush, was approached about the job last year, the former official said.
The White House did not respond to questions Monday. But On Sunday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway insisted that Trump’s talk of bold action should not be dismissed. “It certainly isn’t a bluff. You can take the president seriously," she told Fox News.
Trump on Friday renewed past threats to close the border after his administration announced it was at a “breaking point” processing the paperwork at the border, where agents are seeing an influx of migrants. Border Patrol arrested more than 66,000 migrants in February, the highest monthly total since March 2009 – and officials have said the numbers rose higher still last month. “Mexico is going to have to do something, otherwise I’m closing the border,” declared Trump, who is said to fixate on border crossing statistics.
Trump has long criticized Mexico for failing to halt Central American migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras from coming to the U.S. border. But he had not previously put a timeline on his threat to close the border.
On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen ordered an expansion of the administration’s “remain in Mexico” strategy, which forces certain non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico pending resolution of their asylum cases in the U.S.
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The secretary said her department would expand the policy — formally known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols” — “to return hundreds of additional migrants per day.” The program already has been launched at and between several ports of entry in California and Texas.
In a memo to Customs and Border Protection, Nielsen also called for the agency to accelerate a plan to reassign 750 customs officers to assist with Border Patrol efforts to process and house incoming migrants.
She added in a related announcement that CBP should explore reassigning more personnel, but should notify her if it details more than 2,000 employees to emergency border work.
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“The crisis at our border is worsening, and DHS will do everything in its power to end it,” she said in a written statement. “We will not stand idly by while Congress fails to act yet again, so all options are on the table.”
The number of family members intercepted at the southwest border soared in March, according to preliminary CBP statistics. While overall arrests remain below the higher levels of 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, the Trump administration argues families and children present unique humanitarian and security issues.
Nielsen last week urged Congress to provide additional resources to deal with the growing number of migrants. In addition, she pressed lawmakers to change immigration laws to permit children to be detained for more than 20 days — the current limit set by a federal court order — and to allow for the swift deportation of unaccompanied minors from Central America.
The Trump administration has implemented a number of hardline policies to deter illegal immigration and asylum seekers, only to see a record number of family members caught crossing the border in recent months. Border Patrol estimated that it arrested more than 55,000 family members in March, a 520 percent increase over the same month a year earlier.
Trump last week ordered the State Department to slash aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras because those nations haven’t taken enough action to deter migrants from traveling northward. The State Department informed congressional offices in recent days that it would redirect $450 million in fiscal year 2018 funding to the countries and examine already-committed funds to see if they could be rerouted.
“Cracking down and being harsher has not deterred anybody from coming,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “Ultimately what would stop people from coming is if those countries improve the conditions on the ground.”
Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
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