TRUMP BLINKS; BORDER CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENT PUT OFF

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

He was supposed to come to McAllen today and give the momentous announcement that in face of the caravans of asylum seekers from Central America traveling across Mexico toward the U.S. and drugs flowing across the Rio Grande, he was closing the border.

Instead, after listening to his advisers, elected officials and economic developers from the border states, and even his Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump stepped back from the precipice he himself created.

Instead, he said he would give the Mexican government a one-year respite on the closing but that they could expect tariffs imposed on cars coming into the U.S.at the southern border if Mexico does not do enough to prevent illegal immigration into the U.S. and if it does not crack down on drugs traffic.

After a year, he said that if Mexico did not prevent immigrants from entering the U.S. , he would follow through on the auto taxes. What he didn't explain was that implementing tariffs on cars would violate the new trade agreement that replaced NAFTA.

Meanwhile, the pressures on federal agencies managing the border (I.C.E., C.B.P, etc.) have them scrambling to process the thousands of Central American asylum seekers who are "caught and released" at the border. They, in turn, travel north to join relatives and sponsors.

The shortage o manpower at the bridges has resulted in wait times of up to two hours or more to cross from Matamoros to Brownsville and other ports of entry between Brownsville and El Paso,  a de facto border slowdown, if not closure.

Their release at the Good Neighbor Settlement House and Multimodal Bus Terminal has placed Brownsville squarely in the middle of the border "crisis" epicenter. Each morning, large blue buses stop at the bus terminal and unload hundreds of immigrants where they can purchase bus tickets to head off to their destination.

At any one time, there are hundreds lined up at the counters and other milling around the building.
The responses from locals have been varied.

Some say that Central Americans cannot expect that they can enter the country at will. Others say people escaping violence and economic hardship should be lent a helping hand. Volunteers have collected clothing and other material assistance. Others help them hook up with relatives through their cell phones or to purchase the right tickets for their trip.

When will this end? Trump, the master of brinkmanship, now says he will act in a year. We're in for the long haul, it appears.