Trump to migrants: We cannot take you anymore

US President Donald Trump paid a visit to the US-Mexico border on Friday, following a week of confusing comments over whether he’d shut it down.

The President stopped in Calexico, California, on Fridayafternoon to tour replacement border fencing and participate in a bordersecurity roundtable.

   

According to the Arizona Republic, the two-mile stretchreplacement barrier he’ll see was authorised prior to when he came into office,but a plaque on the bollards calls it “the first section of PresidentTrump’s border wall.”

During the roundtable, Trump said the immigration system isfull, regardless of whether the individuals seeking to come into the US areseeking asylum or not, CNN reported.

“The system is full. We can’t take you anymore. Whetherit’s asylum. Whether it’s anything you want. It’s illegal immigration,”Trump said. “Can’t take you anymore … I’m sorry. So turn around. That’sthe way it is.”

He also repeated his claim asylum seekers were perpetratinga hoax on the US.

“They have lawyers greeting them. They read what thelawyer tells them to read. They’re gang members and they say ‘I fear for mylife,’” he said.

“They’re the ones who are causing fear for life. It’s ascam, OK? It’s a scam. It’s a hoax. I know about hoaxes. I just went through ahoax,” Trump said to laughter in the room. “So our system is full.We’re not taking them anymore.”

The visit follows a series of threats Trump made calling forMexico and Congress to shape up or face the closure of the southern border.

The initial threat Trump issued last week was that he’dclose down the southern border within a week if Mexico didn’t increase migrantapprehensions on its southern border, where Central American migrants seekingto move northward may eventually try to illegally enter the US.

The threat then evolved earlier this week when Trump beganto push the responsibility from Mexico to Congress, after the White House beganto claim that Mexico was doing more to stop border crossings and shifting itsone-week ultimatum to an indefinite deadline.

But by Thursday, Trump’s demand morphed into a tariffthreat. He said he’d give Mexico a one-year warning and potentially implement a25 per cent auto tariff if the country didn’t stop the flow of illicit drugsbeing smuggled into the US.

The tariffs, he suggested, would make a border closureunnecessary.

“I don’t think we’ll ever have to close the borderbecause the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States fromMexico, at 25 per cent, will be massive.”

Despite the clear pivot, Trump said on Friday ahead of hisCalifornia departure that he “never changed his mind” about histhreat to close the southern border.

“I never changed my mind at all. I may shut it down atsome point, but I’d rather do tariffs,” Trump told reporters.

“The tariffs will work just like they’ve worked withsteel,” he said. The auto tariff, he added, “supersedes” the newUS-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

The President also said he’s “looking at an economicpenalty on all the drugs that are coming in through the southern border andkilling our people.”

However, further details on the potential economic penaltiesor the auto tariffs have yet to be announced by the Trump administration.

Trump, during Friday’s roundtable on the border, called hisone-year warning on a southern US border closure “fake news.”

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