Closing the border between the United States and Mexico to tighten security would amount to a “self-inflicted” wound on an economy that President Trump has worked for two years to bolster, U.S. retailers warned the White House on Thursday.
“We strongly encourage the administration to ensure that the free flow of legal trade and travel continues through our southern border,” Matthew Shay, head of the National Retail Federation, wrote in a letter addressed to Trump’s economic and trade advisers, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “We do not believe any type of border closure would address the ongoing immigration issues facing both Mexico and the U.S.”
The president’s threat to close the border is the latest gambit in his ongoing fight with Congress over how to best to curb illegal immigration into the U.S., something he promised to accomplish in his 2016 campaign by building a “big, beautiful wall” separating the country from Mexico. The project was never fully funded when Republicans had sole control of Congress, and House Democrats have balked at the prospect since regaining a majority in November’s elections.
If Congress continues refusing to accede to Trump’s demands, “then we’re going to close the border,” the president promised on Tuesday.
“That’s going to be it,” he said. “Or we’re going to close large sections of the border. Maybe not all of it. But it’s the only way we’re getting a response, and I’m totally ready to do it.”
Trump hasn’t made clear what a border shutdown would include or when it would happen, shifting from an original timetable of this week to waiting for at least a year, leaving businesses wary of a disruption that would compound the fallout from tariffs on steel, aluminum, and $250 billion of Chinese goods.
“Everything from consumer products destined for retail store shelves to intermediary inputs for manufacturing facilities travel across the border,” wrote Shay, whose association represents businesses that contribute $2.6 trillion to the U.S. economy a year and employ 42 million people.
Interrupting the flow of goods would hurt people from warehouse workers to truck drivers and checkout clerks, he added.
“There is no way to close the U.S-Mexico border without inflicting serious damage to the American economy,” Shay wrote. “The end result would be job losses, factory shutdowns, increased consumer costs and reduced product availability across the country.”
In Virginia alone, trade with Mexico supports 133,000 jobs and represents the sixth-largest market for agricultural exports. The country’s purchases fell by 3% last year, however, a drop that the state’s Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, blamed on “haphazard trade and tariff policies” from the Trump administration.
“We’ve consistently supported strategic investments in border security, but let’s be clear: Closing the border altogether isn’t a viable solution,” they said in a statement Thursday. “That is a reckless approach that could jeopardize thousands of jobs in Virginia, lead to increased prices for Virginia families, and wreak havoc on the Commonwealth’s economy.”
