US President Donald Trump has threatened to close border with Mexico to trade if immigrants are not stopped. Mexico has said it does not act on the basis of threats.
Trump on Friday warned that the border closure could happen as early as next week.
“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.
He said he will “keep the border closed” unless the Mexican government acts.
“If they don’t stop it we will keep the border closed. And we will keep it stopped for a long time,” Trump said. “I’m not playing games.”
He added that Mexico must take action against two incoming migrant caravans and work to stop others from reaching the border.
“They have to grab it and they have to stop it. We right now have two big caravans coming up from Guatemala, massive caravans, walking right through Mexico. Mexico is tough. They can stop them. But they chose not to,” he said. “If they don’t stop them, we’re closing the border.”
Trump’s warning came more than a month after the end of a partial government shutdown triggered by a fight in Congress over Trump’s demands for funding for a wall at the Mexico border.
In a series of tweets on Friday, the US president accused Mexico of making “a fortune” from America that is greater than its costs of protecting the border.
Trump blamed Democrats for the problems, and said they were responsible for giving Washington weak immigration laws.
