Last Friday, President Trump announced via Twitter that his administration reached an agreement with Mexico in an attempt to stem the tide of illegal immigration through the southern border. This rescinded the administration’s threat of tariffs if the Mexicans refused to take more concrete action to prevent influxes of migrants from illegally entering the U.S. through their country. All told, it was a win for the President that quelled bipartisan fears about his use of tariffs.
On Monday, however, Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough refused to admit that the President did something positive for the American people. Instead of admitting that Trump effectively used tariff power as leverage against the Mexican government, he decided to blame the issue itself on the President.
Both Scarborough and co-host/wife Mike Brzezinski made the claim that Trump’s tough talk on the border is responsible for the crisis (click expand to read the full transcript):
BRZEZINSKI: Arrests at the border have been soaring in recent months, to levels that are twice of what they were under President Obama, putting President Trump under pressure to address the issue. As New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer tweeted, “The President’s constant threats of sweeping action at the border (closing it/ending asylum/imposing tariffs/cutting aid) play right into the sales pitch of smugglers in region: ‘go to the US now, before it’s too late.’” Meanwhile, Mexicans' favorable view of the United States has been cut in half during the Trump Presidency according to Pew Research.
SCARBOROUGH: Richard Haas, a very good point made by the New Yorker, and this is something we've seen from the very beginning. Barack Obama -- over the course of the Obama Presidency had taken extraordinarily high illegal border crossing numbers and, using both carrot and stick, got those numbers down to 50-year lows. President Trump has come in and because of the threats, because of the “sky is falling” rhetoric, in large part because, also, as has been said here, playing into the smugglers' hands, he’s actually created part of that crisis and of course the other part of the crisis is caused by the fact that he's cutting, actually, relief to those Central American countries that need it the most that would keep people in their Central American countries instead of fleeing and seeking asylum.
What a ridiculous accusation. The reason that there has been a surge of illegal crossings is due to the rampant corruption, poverty, and violence in failing Central American countries. This has overwhelmed Border Patrol and the administration’s efforts to effectively administer the asylum system. Unlike many members of the media, however, at least Scarborough admitted that there's a crisis on the border.
The full transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Morning Joe
06/10/2019
6:06 a.m. Eastern
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, Trump called it a “new deal.” But that’s up for debate. The New York Times reports that Mexico had previously agreed to deploy its national guard during high level secret talks back in March, according to officials from both countries who are familiar with the negotiations. A senior administration official told NBC News that some key elements of the deal had been agreed to months ago but added the two sides had agreed to expand on some of the previous commitments. The official noted that Mexico's commitment to deploy up to 6,000 troops was modestly larger, up from about 5,400, and NPR reports that full operations are not expected to be up and running until 2021. In addition, the Migrant Protection Protocols Program, the arrangement that allows asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases proceed in the U.S., was reached and announced back in December by then Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. A federal judge blocked the implementation of that program in April but an appeals court said it could move forward while the legal challenge proceeds. So, after averting a crisis that he set into motion with a sudden threat to impose tariffs, President Trump is now defending a deal with Mexico that, critics say, will do little to curb the migrant crisis. Arrests at the border have been soaring in recent months, to levels that are twice of what they were under President Obama, putting President Trump under pressure to address the issue. As New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer tweeted, “The President’s constant threats of sweeping action at the border (closing it/ending asylum/imposing tariffs/cutting aid) play right into the sales pitch of smugglers in region: ‘go to the US now, before it’s too late.’” Meanwhile, Mexicans' favorable view of the United States has been cut in half during the Trump Presidency according to Pew Research.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Richard Haas, a very good point made by The New Yorker, and this is something we've seen from the very beginning. Barack Obama -- over the course of the Obama Presidency had taken extraordinarily high illegal border crossing numbers and, using both carrot and stick, got those numbers down to 50-year lows. President Trump has come in and because of the threats, because of the “sky is falling” rhetoric, in large part because, also, as has been said here, playing into the smugglers' hands, he’s actually created part of that crisis and of course the other part of the crisis is caused by the fact that he's cutting, actually, relief to those Central American countries that need it the most that would keep people in their Central American countries instead of fleeing and seeking asylum.
RICHARD HAAS: I think that last point, Joe, is really what’s most critical here. Immigration policy can't start at the border and any time it does, you're playing defense and you're playing catch up. So the administration doesn’t really have an integrated policy that would include helping the central American countries deal with their challenge. This new agreement may not be all that new to say the least. Implementation is a lot in life and the idea that it’s gonna take years for the Mexicans to get their new national guard up to speed is a critical thing. And one last thing, and Steve can comment on this, the fact that this was done using authorities, emergency authorities, that were never meant to be used for this purpose at a time the administration had just introduced or started the process of getting the new U.S./Mexico/Canada trade agreement approved by the U.S. Congress. So it’s so inconsistent because what this does is undermine any confidence on the part of business, as well as Mexico and Canada that were willing to, essentially, honor the trade agreement before the President goes back to tariffs. So I don’t think this gained a lot on immigration but it certainly complicated our relations with Mexico and Canada, and certainly made life a lot more difficult for American businesses and American workers.
