White House doubles down on closing U.S.-Mexico border

Trucks get ready to cross over from Mexico to the U.S.

(Image credit: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 1 April 2019

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney announced on Sunday's ABC News This Week that it would take "something dramatic" to get President Trump to change his mind about shutting down the U.S.-Mexico border.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway agreed, saying on Fox News Sunday this "certainly isn't a bluff." On Friday, Trump complained about the stream of migrants crossing the southern border, and threatened to shut it down. He repeated his ultimatum Saturday, tweeting: "Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA. Our detention areas are maxed out and we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!"

Mexico is the United States' third-largest trading partner, with the Commerce Department reporting more than $611 billion in cross-border trade in 2018. Critics say closing down the border would only hurt consumers and American businesses — specifically the auto industry and farmers — and won't do anything to stop undocumented immigrants from crossing into the U.S. "First, you'd see prices rise incredibly fast," Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, told The Washington Post. "Then ... we would see layoffs within a day or two. This is not going to help border security."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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