Donald Trump criticised over immigration claim during border wall visit: ‘The system is full’

President says that Mexico has ramped up efforts to stop migrants making their way north

The US has no more room for immigrants, according to Donald Trump, who made the statement during a tour of the US-Mexico border on Friday evening. Mr Trump visited a section of fencing in Calexico, California, using the opportunity to reinforce immigration as a campaign issue.

He warned Mexico of economic sanctions and even threatened to close the border if the country did not do more to stop migrants crossing into the USA.

“The system is full. We can’t take you anymore. Whether it’s asylum, whether it’s illegal immigration,” Mr Trump said.

Thanking Republicans for their support, Mr Trump took several swipes at Democrats for their resistance to providing border wall funding.

It’s “very, very tough to get money from the Democrats”, he said. “The wall is like pulling teeth. It’s pretty tough.”

Opponents of the president argued that Mr Trump’s claims about the US being full were rooted in racism, not in the United States’ actual capacity to welcome immigrants.

“What he means is America is full if you are a black or brown immigrant,” tweeted Adam Best, an activist and liberal podcaster.

The president’s trip has been promoted by the White House as something of a victory lap for the president, who has claimed credit for the two-mile portion as the first completed construction on his border wall – even though a 3.2km (2 mile) border fence existed along the corridor previously, and plans to renovate the barrier first started during the administration of Barack Obama.

Walking near the border with the 30-foot steel slat wall behind him, Mr Trump said the new construction “looks great”, and claimed they plan on building a new wall that is better and faster.

Border officials meeting with Mr Trump promised on Friday to construct more than 400 miles of further border fencing over the next year and a half, a feat they say will be funded through the $1.4bn in border wall appropriations approved by congress and the roughly $8bn in funds Mr Trump has diverted as a part of his national emergency declaration.

That emergency declaration has been met with legal challenges, and prompted the first veto of Mr Trump’s presidency after Democrats forced a measure to terminate his declaration, with the help of a few Republicans in congress.

In the month since he declared the emergency Mr Trump has considered several approaches to secure the border and to take pressure off of a system he has described as overburdened even as his administration has implemented policies that critics say has exacerbated the problem.

Among those ideas was the threat to close the US-Mexico border, a move that could impact billions worth of trade between the two countries and significantly alter life in communities along that divide.

But, after pushback, Mr Trump backed down and suggested there were other routes to get what he wanted.

“The only thing frankly better, but less drastic than closing the border, is to tariff the cars coming in,” Mr Trump said on Thursday in the White House. “We’re going to give them a one-year warning and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’ll put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars.”

The Trump administration has described the crisis at the US-Mexico border as one that threatens Americans across the country, but also one that is a humanitarian imperative to keep migrants safe.

“The president himself has made it clear that this is a humanitarian crisis,” Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security, said on CNN on Thursday night. “He recognises that humanitarian crisis and he’s trying to take it to the people who can fix it.”