Last night, President Trump announced on Twitter that beginning June 10th, the U.S. planned to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods coming from Mexico, which will increase by 5 percent each month until “the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,..”.
Since then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened nearly 300 points down, and futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell. Senate Finance Committee Chairman and Republican Chuck Grassley called the move a “misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent.”
Not only does the proposed tariff jeopardize the passage of the USMCA trilateral trade agreement that may replace NAFTA, it almost comically misses the mark on impacting migration in any meaningful way. It also hints at the President’s ignorance of the actions Mexico has taken to stem the tide of asylum seekers and attempts to partner with the U.S. to increase security and stability in the region.
Republican and Democratic senators have also proposed legislation that attempts to deal with the increase of migrants from Central America and improve cooperative efforts with Mexico. None hit the nail on the head, but each proposes useful changes that are—at least in some way—related to asylum.
Our (updated) chart details the most substantive changes of the Secure and Protect Act introduced by Senator Graham (R-SC), the HUMANE Act introduced by Senator Cornyn (R-TX), and the Central America Reform and Enforcement Act introduced by Senator Schumer (D-NY), the Asylum Reform Act introduced by Representative Hurd (TX-23), and Protecting Immigrant Families and Improving Immigration Procedures Act, introduced by Senator Feinstein (D-CA).