President Donald Trump abruptly announced on Twitter late Thursday night that his administration would begin imposing a 5 percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico until Mexican authorities help put an end to the overwhelming flow of illegal alien migrants flooding across their border and into the United States.
"On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied," Trump tweeted late on Thursday.
On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019
....at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019
The president added that the tariff would “gradually increase” as long as the stream continues, noting that all tariffs will stop when illegal immigration does.
The stock market predictably took an overnight nosedive following the news, down almost 300 points at the start of Friday morning.
But while the wisdom of imposing tariffs is admittedly debatable given their detrimental effect on the U.S. economy, Trump’s got a point.
The influx of illegal alien migrants streaming through Mexico from Central America and into the Southwest United States has ramped up dramatically in just the first few months of FY2019, reaching record levels not seen in more than a decade. U.S. border stations in the Rio Grande Valley Sector are currently housing around 8,000 illegal aliens at any given time, far beyond their facilities’ capacity.
On Wednesday, a massive group of 1,036 illegal aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras were caught breaking through a chain-link border fence and crossing into El Paso, Texas – the largest single group of migrants ever caught at one time.
Between Oct. 1 and April 30, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports apprehending 460,294 illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. unlawfully in between ports of entry – and that doesn’t include those caught during the month of May.
Along with the increase in migrants comes a dramatic spike in human trafficking, including children being kidnapped or even “borrowed” as tickets into the United States. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost told Congress that in the first seven months of FY2019, border agents had already identified 3,500 fraudulent illegal alien “families,” including a previously deported man caught crossing the border with a 6-month-old infant that wasn’t his.
Despite the undeniable increase in illegal migration, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador thumbed his nose at Trump in response the threat of tariffs to help force a solution.
“With all due respect, although you have the right to express it, 'America First' is a fallacy because until the end of times, even beyond national borders, justice and universal fraternity will prevail," AMLO said in a statement.
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)