By David Nakamura and Felicia Sonmez / The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Facing widespread opposition, President Donald Trump backed down Thursday from his threat to close the southern border, instead giving Mexico a “one-year warning” while leaving his administration with no clear path to deal with a record surge of migrant families.
Trump had issued an ultimatum on Twitter late last week that he would move to seal the border to trade and travel if Mexican authorities do not halt illegal immigration.
Trump’s pronouncement, coming amid reports that the U.S. Border Patrol was at the “breaking point,” surprised White House aides and sparked fear among Republican allies and business leaders over the potentially devastating economic impact of closing the 2,000-mile border with the nation’s third-largest trading partner.
In the days after his tweet, Trump and his senior advisers issued conflicting signals about his intentions, with some aides privately expressing befuddlement over his strategy. The president offered no public details, and aides worked behind the scenes to craft a plan that would satisfy Trump but minimize the economic harm.
Those efforts were rendered moot Thursday when Trump, in an exchange with reporters at the White House, suddenly shifted gears, saying that if Mexico does not stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States within the next year, he will impose tariffs on cars and then, possibly, close the border.
“We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, particularly cars,” Trump said. “And if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.”
Later in the afternoon, ahead of a trade meeting with Chinese officials, Trump praised Mexico for “doing a very good job in the last three or four days since we talked about closing the border,” even though Mexican authorities have said they have not altered their enforcement policies.
The president’s decision offered relief to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had lobbied Trump not to act.
“We welcome the President’s decision not to close the Mexican border,” Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s executive vice president, said in a statement.
He called on Congress and the White House to ensure that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has shifted personnel to help process the migrant families, has sufficient resources “to reduce the excessive wait times affecting legitimate trade and travel across the border.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen this week ordered the CBP to deploy “emergency surge operations” to the border, including shifting 750 agents from field operations to help the Border Patrol, a move that could produce delays at legal ports of entry.
Trump’s apparent turnaround came a day before he is scheduled to visit Calexico, California, a city near Mexico where a 2-mile section of border fence was replaced last year.
The president has sought to demonstrate progress on the wall as the number of unauthorized border crossings last month approached 100,000, the highest level in more than a decade, according to the DHS.
Critics have said the spike proves that Trump’s policies have failed to address the complex factors that sparked the influx of migrant families, mostly from Central American nations, and to adequately respond to the mounting humanitarian crisis.
Trump this week announced that his administration would cut off some foreign aid money to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, a move that analysts said could make the migration problem worse by hurting their economies.
Though Trump said his threat to close the border aimed to put economic pressure on Mexico, experts said it would do little to stem the flow of migrants, many of whom cross between legal ports of entry and seek to surrender to authorities in hope of getting asylum protections.
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