Trump Threatens Closure of US-Mexico Border Next Week to Stem Asylum Surge

Cars queue up in multiple lines as they wait to be inspected by U.S. border patrol officers to enter from Mexico into the U.S., at the San Ysidro point of entry, in Tijuana, Mexico, on March 29, 2019. Jorge Duenes/Reuters

WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, Florida—President Donald Trump threatened on Friday, March 29, to close the U.S. border with Mexico next week, potentially disrupting millions of legal border crossings and billions of dollars in trade, if Mexico does not stop immigrants from reaching the United States.

“There’s a very good likelihood that I'll be closing the border next week, and that will be just fine with me,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.