Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., tweeted that President Trump’s immigration policies “are hateful, ineffective and based on a lie.”
Kennedy predicted Friday that Trump will pay politically for his newly announced tariffs on Mexico.
“The president just raised taxes on working families buying everything from cars to tomatoes,” Kennedy tweeted Friday. “Result? You lose. American companies lose. Immigrants lose. And he will lose, too.”
Trump announced late Thursday his administration plans to levy a 5% tax on a large swath of Mexican goods entering the country.
The tariffs, slated to begin June 10, are designed to motivate Mexican officials to do more to curb the flow of undocumented immigrants attempting to seek asylum in the United States.
Translation: the president just raised taxes on working families buying everything from cars to tomatoes.
Why? Because his immigration policies are hateful, ineffective and based on a lie.
Result? You lose. American companies lose. Immigrants lose. And he will lose too. https://t.co/DxQtdvngmv
— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) May 31, 2019
The president’s economic aides have also been attempting to negotiate a trade agreement with Mexico and Canada — a measure that has been stonewalled by the Democrat-controlled House.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the tariffs have nothing to do with the ongoing trade negotiations. “These are not tariffs as part of a trade dispute,” he said. “These are tariffs as part of an immigration problem.”
Stopping illegal immigration was a hallmark of Trump’s 2016 campaign, during which he promised to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico.
[Opinion: Trump’s latest Mexico tariff gambit is reckless and mindbogglingly stupid]
In order not to pay Tariffs, if they start rising, companies will leave Mexico, which has taken 30% of our Auto Industry, and come back home to the USA. Mexico must take back their country from the drug lords and cartels. The Tariff is about stopping drugs as well as illegals!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2019
The president has threatened to close the border on more than one occasion.
Democrats have called Trump’s policy on immigration inhumane and racist.
“I don’t know if merit counted for when his wife’s family came into the country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week, taking a swipe at first lady Melania Trump, an immigrant who brought her parents into the country. “I don’t know. Maybe it did. God bless them if it did. But he calls that ‘chain migration,’ which he wants to get rid of.”
