President Donald Trump is keeping up his antagonism of immigrants and the immigration system for the foreseeable future. This Friday, he threatened to partially or completely close the United States’ southern border next week unless Mexico “immediately” stops “ALL” undocumented immigration coming through their side.
He rambled:
‘The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S. Therefore, CONGRESS MUST CHANGE OUR WEAK IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW, & Mexico must stop illegals from entering the U.S… If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week. This would be so easy for Mexico to do, but they just take our money and “talk”.’
It’s unclear what mechanisms he proposes the Mexicans employ to stop people fleeing violence from seeking refuge in the United States, as it’s unclear what the ramifications of his proposed border closure would be. Would anyone be allowed in? What about tourists? What about other forms of commerce?
Trump claimed that the United States would actually be saving money by closing the border, but it’s unclear where he gets the idea that it being open makes more than $100 billion a year pour into our southern neighbor’s pockets. That’s many times more than what we give them in aid, and repeatedly, numbers about the supposed cost of undocumented immigration have been uncovered to be pushed to their breaking point. Trump has claimed that trade deficits with various nations amount to the United States “losing” said amount of money, although that doesn’t tell the whole story — and the 2017 trade deficit with Mexico was significantly lower than the number Trump put forward this week.
That’s just one of the available questions. In another glaring display of racist fantasy, Trump blames the Mexican government for the issues that have popped up in immigration to the United States that they, quite simply, have nothing to do with. They have no culpability in undocumented immigration, although Trump has claimed — wrongly, but repeatedly — that they have funneled prospective migrants to the U.S. border.
He has blamed them in the past for so-called caravans of asylum seekers that have traveled through their territory, although Mexican authorities have taken repeated measures to thwart the travel where it violates their laws. They have detained tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants a month, just like U.S. authorities at their own southern border — so again, what exactly does Trump have in mind? Perhaps he wants migrants to be held in chain-link, outdoor enclosures under an overpass like hundreds of asylum-seeking families in El Paso were recently?
This is El Paso right now, where hundreds of migrant families are being held in the parking lot of a Border Patrol station because there is no room for them inside, or anywhere else. pic.twitter.com/lFGZ9zRcZk
— Nick Miroff (@NickMiroff) March 27, 2019
The Mexican government has even already acquiesced to Trump team demands for them to house asylum seekers while their paperwork is proceeded. To suggest that Mexico prefers to just “take our money and talk” is simply wrong — and again, among a number of issues with the latest fantasy nonsense Trump threw out this week.
The problem is that this affects people’s lives. He’s already held hundreds of thousands of government jobs hostage for over a month because Congress wouldn’t give him border wall money — so what’s next?
Check out Twitter’s response below…
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
