Sen. Cruz: Closing Border Would Be 'Devastating' to Texas

Closure of the U.S.-Mexico border to legal commerce “would be devastating to Texas,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a statement Wednesday.

“Millions of jobs, in Texas and across the country, depend upon trade with Mexico, and the federal government shouldn’t do anything to jeopardize those jobs," Cruz said a day after President Donald Trump backtracked on his threat to close the border. 

"The answer is not to punish Texas farmers and ranchers and manufacturers and small businesses. Closing legal points of entry would harm American commerce and legal transit between Mexico and the United States, and leave coyotes and human traffickers to roam free in the wilderness of our unsecured border," Cruz continued.

Trump last week threatened to close the border unless Mexico acted to fight illegal immigration. Closing the border could disrupt millions of dollars in trade and millions of legal crossings.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined Democrats in warning Trump against such a move.

"Closing down the border would have potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country and I would hope we would not be doing that sort of thing," McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.

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