President Trump on Friday threatened to close the whole U.S.-Mexico border in a bid to force congressional Democrats’ hands as the partial government shutdown nears its second week.
We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2018
….The United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a “profit making operation.” We build a Wall or…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2018
…..close the Southern Border. Bring our car industry back into the United States where it belongs. Go back to pre-NAFTA, before so many of our companies and jobs were so foolishly sent to Mexico. Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2018
“We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!”
“….The United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a ‘profit making operation.’ We build a Wall or…..”
“…..close the Southern Border. Bring our car industry back into the United States where it belongs. Go back to pre-NAFTA, before so many of our companies and jobs were so foolishly sent to Mexico. Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border……”
Trump’s Twitter threat comes amid hardening positions on both sides as the partial government shutdown, affecting about 800,000 federal employees and many more federal contractors, shows no signs of abating. Congressional Democrats refuse to give the Trump administration the $5 billion its demanding for a border wall, signaling they’re only willing to appropriate a bit over $1 billion for “border security” measures — specifically excluding a wall.
The standoff began early in the morning of Dec. 22 when a swath of federal agencies ran out of funding for the fiscal year. House Democrats will gain some leverage in the fight once they assume the House majority on Jan. 3. But even if the House and Republican-controlled Senate passed a “clean” budget funding extension that included no wall funding, Trump would likely veto it.
Trump has previously threatened to close the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico border. The president’s threat to shut down the 2,000-mile-long southern border would disrupt hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade and an average of $821 million each day, the Washington Examiner reported on Dec. 10.
A total of $300 billion in imports — about $821 million per day — flowed from Mexico into the U.S. in fiscal year 2017, which ended Sept. 2017, according to numbers Customs and Border Protection provided to the Washington Examiner. That trade would either stop or have to be rerouted to the U.S. by other means.
