Donald Trump will close the southern border to all but ‘essential travel’

Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the U.S. will close its southern border with Mexico on Friday to all but cargo and essential travel.

The moves comes after President Donald Trump closed the United States’ norther border with Canada earlier this week.

‘We’re looking at both our northern and our southern border,’ Wolf told reporters outside the White House Friday morning. 

He noted officials were ‘really looking at limiting non essential travel across that border. We want to make sure that cargo continues, trade continues, healthcare workers continue to be able to traverse that border. But tourism, recreational activities, and other things need to stop during this.’

Wolf confirmed an announcement on the souther border would be made on Friday.

President Trump closed the U.S. border with Canada on Wednesday

There are 118 coronavirus cases currently in Mexico and 13,159 in the U.S. 

The closure has been expected since the U.S. closed its northern border with Canada to all but essential travel as the countries work to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a tweet on Thursday, said he was working closely with Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard,  his Mexican counterpart, ‘on travel restrictions that balance protecting our citizens from further transmission of #COVID19.’ 

Details of the planned Southern closure haven’t been released but are expected to be similar to the arrangement made with Canada.

That would mean trade would not be affected. 

Mexico is a popular spring break and vacation destination for Americans. 

Mexican officials first suggested the idea a week ago.

Health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said at a press conference last Friday that ‘Mexico wouldn’t bring the virus to the United States, rather the United States would bring it here.  

‘If it were technically necessary, we would consider mechanisms of restriction or stronger surveillance,’ he said.

Cars line up to cross into the U.S. at the Mexico-U.S. San Ysidro border crossing after the mayor of Tijuana urged residents to restrict visits to the United States to reduce the spread of the coronavirus disease

President Trump said the action was taken ‘by mutual consent’ and would not affect trade

Trump closed the northern U.S. border with Canada on Wednesday, tweeting that ‘non-essential’ traffic would be banned.

‘We will be, by mutual consent, temporarily closing our Northern Border with Canada to non-essential traffic. Trade will not be affected. Details to follow!’ he wrote.

How the ban will work and exactly when it takes effect was not immediately clear. 

The move came after Canada and the United States had worked out the details of a mutual ban on non-essential travel between the two countries amid the new coronavirus pandemic.