The president’s arrival in this small border town two hours east of San Diego is intended to highlight what the president and his aides say is an out-of-control crisis caused by a surge of Central American families who have overwhelmed law enforcement facilities.
The answer, he argues, is construction of a border wall and legal changes to allow the authorities to treat illegal border-crossers and asylum-seekers more strictly.
“The president himself has made it clear that this is a humanitarian crisis,” Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security, said Thursday night on CNN. “He recognizes that humanitarian crisis, and he’s trying to take it to the people who can fix it.”
Weeks after declaring a national emergency at the border because Congress refused to fund construction of his border wall, Trump had threatened to close the legal ports of entry between Mexico and the United States — potentially disrupting billions of dollars’ worth of trade and halting the travel of a half-million people each day.
But on the eve of his trip to the border, Trump backed down in the face of hard criticism from the business community and top officials in his own party. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, predicted that a complete border shutdown would have a “potentially catastrophic economic impact” on the country.
Trump responded on Thursday by initially saying he would give Mexico a year to stop Central American migrants from traversing Mexico on their way to the United States. And the president said that if Mexico did not do its part, he would first impose tariffs on Mexican cars before shutting down the border.
“The only thing frankly better, but less drastic than closing the border, is to tariff the cars coming in,” Trump said in the White House. “We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’ll put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars.”
Later Thursday, Trump denied that he had put off a border shutdown for a year, saying that it could still happen if he decided that Mexico was not doing enough to keep migrants from traveling to the United States.
“We’ll start with the tariffs and see what happens,” he said.
On Friday morning, Trump said on Twitter that Mexico had already changed its behavior.
“Mexico, for the first time in decades, is meaningfully apprehending illegals at THEIR Southern Border, before the long march up to the U.S.,” he wrote. “This is great and the way it should be.”
As he departed the White House for his trip, he again praised Mexico, suggesting to reporters that in the past four days, the country had been “very, very good.”
In Calexico, Trump will stand in front of a section of wall made out of tall steel slats that allow border agents to see through to the other side — a far cry from the concrete slab that the president once called for. He will be presented with a plaque that commemorates “the completion of the first section of President Trump’s border wall.”
In fact, the small section of wall that Trump will stand in front of is not evidence that the president is building the wall he repeatedly called for during his 2016 presidential campaign. The Calexico wall was merely an upgrade to an existing section of fencing. The 2-mile section of wall was completed in October.
Critics argue that the wall is not a solution to the surge of families that have arrived in recent months. Most of the families are not trying to sneak into the country undetected. On the contrary, most are seeking out border patrol agents to turn themselves in, either at the ports of entry or between them.
Asked on Thursday night why the president is not using his national emergency to seek funds to provide humanitarian relief to the families who have been apprehended recently, Nielsen conceded that the focus on the wall is, partly, a stunt.
“Well, I think part of that is just a — it’s an optic,” she told Chris Cuomo, the host of “Cuomo Prime Time” on CNN. “To have the president stand in front of the wall indicates immediately to any viewer that he’s at the border. But I think his message will be about the dual crisis and how we need Congress to act, to give us the authorities to address.”
In addition to seeing the wall, Trump is expected to receive a briefing from border patrol officials at the agency’s Calexico station. He will also participate in a round-table discussion about the border with local politicians and others.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.