SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s announcement that his administration would impose escalating tariffs on Mexican imports until “illegal” migrants are stopped from arriving at the southern U.S. border:

“The president is threatening the employment of tens of thousands of New Mexicans whose livelihoods and families absolutely depend on a mutually beneficial relationship with our neighbors to the south. These tariffs have the potential to be economically catastrophic. Our state sends almost $1.5 billion in exports to Mexico each year; a trade war would devastate businesses all across New Mexico, in rural and urban communities alike.

“The president has the tools and funding at his disposal to effectively address border security. He should immediately fill the vacancies at his agencies on the border. He should work with Congress and our Mexican neighbors on comprehensive immigration reform. Instead, he punishes New Mexicans and residents of other states for a situation he has created and exacerbated, one only the federal government can fix.

“Once again, the president’s ill-considered and politically motivated machinations serve nothing but his empty anti-immigrant rhetoric. He has carelessly left border communities to deal with a humanitarian crisis of his own making. And now he would take away jobs in those communities. The fight he wants to have will actively harm so many New Mexicans. I call on him to immediately retract his proposal.”