Does the U.S. Need to Permanently Shut Down the Southern Border?

What’s the story?

• President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to permanently close the southwestern U.S. border unless Mexico moves the “the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries.”

• San Ysidro is the busiest port of entry in the country—and world. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, more than 90,000 people cross it daily.

Has the border been closed before?

• Yes, yesterday. A group of migrants had rushed the Tijuana-San Ysidro crossing, allegedly throwing rocks, which resulted in Border Patrol agents firing tear gas on migrant families. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) temporarily closed the port of entry near San Diego "to ensure public safety in response to large numbers of migrants seeking to enter the U.S. illegally.”
• Immediately after the  9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush temporarily closed the borders with Mexico and Canada.

Can the border be closed?

• Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said the president "cannot legally do it. We know that because of federal statutes. They were last revised in 1986 when our relationship with migrants coming north was very different than it is now.”

“The president doesn’t want to hear this but it’s the law,” Napolitano added. 

• Peter S. Margulies, an immigration law expert at Roger Williams University School of Law, concurred, telling the Washington Post that closing the border “permanently” would conflict with the asylum laws.

"The border is very long,” Margulies said. But if the administration can “stop people just short of the border, there’s a better argument that those people are not entitled to asylum. I think it would be terrible policy and I think it would be morally repugnant, but the administration would be on better legal footing.”

What do you think?

Should Trump permanent close the southwest border? Should the administration instead try to “stop people just short of the border”? Should Congress fund Trump’s “big beautiful wall”? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)