--- title: Trump Threatens to Close Border With Mexico 'Permanently' description: President Trump said the U.S. will close its southern border with Mexico if needed, after U.S. agents shot tear gas at migrants. canonical: https://time.com/5463168/trump-border-mexico/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-26T13:04:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:07:29.779Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Threatens to Close Border With Mexico 'Permanently' og:description: After U.S. agents shot tear gas at migrants after some tried to breach a fence og:url: https://time.com/5463168/trump-border-mexico/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta034088b17985938/69893fe586f68ea7506eacc1/trump-border-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump Border Mexico og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Threatens to Close Border With Mexico 'Permanently' twitter:description: After U.S. agents shot tear gas at migrants after some tried to breach a fence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta034088b17985938/69893fe586f68ea7506eacc1/trump-border-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Threatens to Close Border With Mexico 'Permanently If Need Be' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Nov 26, 2018 1:04 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media before departing the White House for California on November 17, 2018 in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media before departing the White House for California on November 17, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Pool—Getty Images by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Nov 26, 2018 1:04 PM UTC President Donald Trump said the U.S. will close its southern border with Mexico if needed, a day after U.S. agents shot several rounds of tear gas at migrants after some tried to breach a border fence. “Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries,” Trump said Monday on Twitter. “Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1067015026995879937) The Mexican peso fell as much as 0.3 percent after Trump’s tweet, weakening to as low as 20.4624 per dollar, one of only a handful of decliners in emerging markets Monday. U.S. border officials on Sunday temporarily closed the San Ysidro port of entry between Tijuana and San Diego, one of the busiest border crossings in the world, “to ensure public safety” after agents shot several rounds of tear gas at migrants, leaving children screaming and coughing, the Associated Press reported. An estimated 8,200 migrants from the so-called caravans heading to the U.S. from Central America are now in Mexico, authorities say. Trump has vowed to shut down the southern border with lethal force if necessary, and is calling on Mexico to intervene. Immigration — an issue Trump has relied on to rev up his base — has proved legislatively thorny. Democrats and even some lawmakers in Trump’s own party have resisted his calls to fund his proposed border wall. Trump wants migrants to remain in Mexico while their U.S. asylum cases are adjudicated. Olga Sánchez Cordero, Mexico’s incoming interior minister, as well as a spokesman for incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, have said Mexico won’t accept that proposal. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5463168/trump-border-mexico/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5463168/trump-border-mexico/"},"headline":"President Trump Threatens to Close Border With Mexico 'Permanently If Need Be'","datePublished":"2018-11-26T13:04:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:07:29.779Z","description":"After U.S. agents shot tear gas at migrants after some tried to breach a fence","url":"https://time.com/5463168/trump-border-mexico/","keywords":["Immigration","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta034088b17985938/69893fe586f68ea7506eacc1/trump-border-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bloomberg","jobTitle":"Contributor","url":"https://time.com/author/bloomberg/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta034088b17985938/69893fe586f68ea7506eacc1/trump-border-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Border Mexico","caption":"Trump Border Mexico","creditText":"Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5463168/trump-border-mexico/","name":"President Trump Threatens to Close Border With Mexico 'Permanently If Need Be'"}}]}] ```