Trump’s aides threaten once again to close Mexico border

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration on Sunday doubled down on its threat to shut down the southern border with Mexico, a day after it cut aid to Central American countries which President Donald Trump accused of deliberately sending migrants to the United States.

Faced with a surge of asylum seekers from Central American countries who travel through Mexico, Trump said on Friday there was a ‘good likelihood’ he would close the border this coming week if Mexico does not stop unauthorised immigrants from reaching the United States.

He also accused, without providing evidence, the nations of having ‘set up’ migrant caravans and sending them north.

Speaking to ABC’s ‘This Week’ show, White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said the president had few other options in the absence of any support from Democrats for more border security or legislative action to change the immigration law.

‘Faced with those limitations, the president will do everything he can. If closing the ports of entry means that, that’s exactly what he intends to do,’ Mulvaney said. ‘We need border security and we’re going to do the best we can with what we have,’ he added.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told ‘Fox News Sunday’ that the situation at the border was at ‘melting point’ and said the president was serious in his threat. ‘It certainly is not a bluff. You can take the president seriously.’ Neither Trump aide offered any specific details or timeline for the potential border shutdown.

At a Saturday rally on the border in El Paso, Texas, Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke denounced Trump’s immigration policies as the politics of ‘fear and division.’ Trump has repeatedly said he would close the US border with Mexico during his two years in office. His latest threat had workers and students who frequently cross the border worried about the potential disruption to their lives.

The government says it is struggling to deal with a surge in recent days of asylum seekers from countries in Central America who travel through Mexico and on Saturday cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

March is on track for 100,000 border apprehensions, Department of Homeland Security officials said, which would be the highest monthly number in more than a decade. Most of those people can remain in the United States while their asylum claims are processed, which can take years because of ballooning immigration court backlogs.

Trump’s threat to shut the US border if Mexico does not halt all illegal immigration has exposed the limitations of the new Mexican government’s strategy of trying to appease the US president as he gears up for re-election.

Amid a surge in migrant detentions at the southwest US border, Trump on Friday said he would close the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) frontier, or sections of it, during the coming week if Mexico did not halt the flow of people.

Casting the government under leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the villain in his struggle to curb illegal immigration to the United States, Trump returned to a signature theme of his 2015-2016 presidential election bid.

His words were a slap in the face to Lopez Obrador, who has refused to answer back to provocative comments from Trump. Instead, the Mexican leader has worked to cement his powerbase by combating poverty with welfare handouts and lambasting his predecessors as corrupt.

On Friday, Lopez Obrador again said he would not quarrel with Trump, invoking ‘love and peace’ and repeating his commitment to curbing migration.

However, for former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda, Mexico faces ‘incredibly damaging’ consequences if Trump does order ‘go-slows’ at the border, which would pitch Lopez Obrador into uncomfortable new territory.

‘He’s totally unfamiliar with international affairs. He’d prefer not to have to worry about these things,’ Castaneda said, noting that the US president had tested many governments. ‘Nobody’s been able to find a way to manage Trump. It’s a mess.’ Staunchly non-interventionist in international affairs, Lopez Obrador shows little interest in diplomacy. He has often said ‘the best foreign policy is domestic policy.’ But as the destination of 80 per cent of Mexico’s exports and workplace of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, the United States offers Trump plenty of leverage to apply pressure via the border.

Policy experts say Trump’s demand is not realistic and that Mexican authorities are already stretched.

Still, Mexico has signaled it will redouble efforts to contain migration, which stems largely from three poor, violent Central American countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he did not believe Trump was demanding an outright stop to the migrant flow, which has run into the millions over the past decade.

Reuters