For now, one tantrum-induced threat from the White House has subsided. The president’s warning that he would completely shut down the country’s southern border unless Mexico stopped people from illegally entering the United States has evaporated.
It would have been easy to dismiss the rhetoric as empty and laughable, akin to a small child’s threat to running away after she has been denied an extra helping of ice cream.
But in the age of mercurial outbursts on Twitter and ill-advised executive orders, combined with a devotion to placating a bigoted voting base and the employment of nationalist advisors, laughing off the president’s March saber rattling would have been foolhardy.
Fortunately fate and good sense intervened and Trump’s threat was rescinded, though reserved for a later date. In all likelihood the change of heart was because he had too many people telling him that sort of isolation would be costly, the financial hit would be bad not just for those who oppose him but for those who benefit from everyday exchanges with Mexico.
In 2017 it was reported that 20,000 people and 35,000 cars along with 2,500 cargo trucks cross between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, daily. Texas supported Trump in his run for president just the year before.
In California at the San Ysidro port of entry, 70,000 passenger vehicles and 20,000 pedestrians make daily trips north from Tijuana. California did not support Trump’s presidential bid.
That’s a lot of money crossing back and forth every day, even if it’s just $100 spent at Las Americas or $72 on a monthly trolley pass.
In fact, when the Trump Administration shut the San Ysidro border crossing down for a couple of hours in November last year, the estimated damage to the economy was $5.3 million.
Millions of dollars in revenue gone in just a couple of hours. Imagine how much would be lost in a month. A year. Indefinitely. Would the Trump administration, members of the GOP and businesses have been willing to take that kind of hit? The White House, wisely, surmised no.
Of course the costs associated with shutting down the border are more than dollars and pesos and bottom lines and profitability.
The border is as much a part of the identity of cities like Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach and San Diego as sunshine and the ocean (albeit polluted at times).
We have friends and family who cross the border daily, weekly or every so often. We have cultural ties with people who participate in and strengthen the act of creating a better world built on mutual respect, love, understanding and curiosity. And, yes, economic interests too.
Fortunately the calls for shutting down the border have faded away and we can go on with living our lives in peace with our neighbors. For now.
