President-elect Donald Trump promised on Monday he would use the prospect of tariffs on Mexican goods to encourage Mexico to cooperate with American efforts to control illegal immigration. Trump did this in 2019 when he told the Mexicans they would face tariffs if they did not comply with his “remain in Mexico” policy which prevented migrants from making bogus asylum claims in the United States, and then remaining here.
Said Trump, “I’m going to inform [Mexico’s president] on day one or sooner that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25 percent tariff on everything they send into the United States of America. . . . If that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 50, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 75. Then I’ll make it 100.”
Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies observed that “The default position for Mexico’s national interest is let them [migrants] flow through [to the U.S. border]: We don’t want to get stuck with them. . . . And they [will] only move off of that position when the Americans do or say something that forces them.”
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