Trump threatens hefty tariffs on nations that don’t accept migrants

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Former US President Donald Trump threatened to impose large tariffs on countries that do not accept deported immigrants, suggesting that his immigration and trade policies could become closely intertwined if he returns to the White House.

“Countries will accept them back, and if they don’t, we will not do business with those countries and we will put significant tariffs on them,” Trump said Thursday at an event in Montezuma Pass, Arizona.

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Immigration remains a cornerstone of Trump’s reelection plan. He has pledged to complete a wall along the border and carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history. Polls show that a majority of Americans support limiting immigration.

He also made imposing large tariffs on adversaries and allies a central part of his economic policy. He even suggested that he wanted to raise enough money from import tariffs to be able to cut income taxes dramatically, a major revolution in how the United States generates revenue to fund the government that would impose broad costs on consumer goods.

Trump visited the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday as he ramped up his attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’s handling of illegal immigration, as part of his effort to win back Arizona, a state he narrowly lost by just over 10,000 votes in 2020.

It was his first border visit since February, and came on the same day Harris delivered her keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — an apparent move to divert attention away from his rival as she prepared to deliver the biggest speech of her political career.

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Trump has been on a week-long tour of swing states in an attempt to regain ground lost in recent weeks after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Polls show frustration among Democrats over the surge in undocumented and unhoused immigrants entering major cities and overwhelming social services during the Biden administration, and Democratic mayors have expressed concerns that their cities are struggling to handle the influx of people.

Last month, Harris pledged to reintroduce a bipartisan border security bill that Republicans had previously blocked at Trump’s urging. The proposed legislation would give the president the power to close the border if immigration levels exceed certain thresholds.

After the bipartisan bill collapsed, Biden announced measures to limit asylum applications at the border if the number of daily crossings exceeded 2,500. In July, apprehensions of people crossing the border illegally dropped by 32 percent, the lowest number in nearly four years, after Biden’s directive, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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Ahead of Trump’s visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, local Republicans have been ramping up their efforts to rally supporters in rural Cochise County, Arizona. “People have been pouring in,” said Inga McCord, a volunteer with the Cochise County Republican Party Committee, from their office in Sierra Vista. “They’re coming in droves to get signs and hats.”

But McCord said the domestic strategy is focused on getting Republicans to vote, rather than influencing undecided voters to choose Trump over Harris. “It’s just about getting people to vote,” she said. “If you have a brain in your head, you can tell the difference.”

At the county Democratic Party headquarters, volunteer Pat Smith said Harris has sparked new interest. One man came into the office Wednesday planning to vote for the first time since 2016, she said. “There’s excitement,” she said.

Sierra Vista Mayor Clea Macka, who switched party affiliation from Democrat to independent in the conservative stronghold, said his city needs resources.

“Our city has a population of 45,000 and we need more resources at the border. Border control is what we need.”

Bloomberg.com

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