Trump threatens huge tariffs on countries that don’t accept deported migrants

Former US president Donald Trump threatened large tariffs on countries that don’t accept deported migrants, suggesting that his immigration and trade policy could become closely intertwined if he returns to the White House.

“The countries will accept them back, and if they don’t accept them back we do no trade with those countries and we charge them big tariffs,” Trump said on Thursday at an event in Montezuma Pass, Arizona.

Immigration remains a cornerstone of Trump’s re-election pitch. He has pledged to complete the construction of a wall along the entire border and to carry out the largest deportation effort in US history. Polls indicate that a majority of Americans support curbing immigration.

He’s also made imposing large tariffs on both adversaries and allies a key portion of his economic policy. He’s even suggested he would like to raise enough money from import levies that he could drastically reduce income taxes, a major upheaval to how the US generates revenue to fund the government that would have widespread costs on consumer goods.

Trump visited the US-Mexico border on Thursday as he intensified his attacks on Vice-President Kamala Harris’ handling of illegal immigration, part of his effort to reclaim Arizona, a state he narrowly lost by just over 10,000 votes in 2020.

It was his first border visit since February, landing on the same day as Harris’ keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago – a pointed move to divert attention away from his rival as she gave the biggest speech of her political career, pledging to “reform our broken immigration system” to reduce undocumented border crossings.

Trump has been on a week-long tour of swing states as he attempts to regain ground he’s lost in recent weeks following President Joe Biden’s departure from the race.