‘If you close the border, Eagle Pass will die.’ Residents fear a Trump border closure would be destructive to South Texas towns.

Cities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border say closure — now, or a year from now — would stifle commerce, daily lives.

Cars coming from Piedras Negras, Mexico, wait to cross into Eagle Pass, Tex., on April 3. President Trump has said if nothing is done about the migrant crisis, he will shut down the border with Mexico. EAGLE PASS, Tex. — Gabriel Bustamante Garza crosses in and out of Mexico so often that the border checkpoint here seems more like a tollbooth than an international boundary.

Trump has maintained throughout his presidency that “a nation without borders is not a nation,” and until Thursday he repeatedly threatened to close all or parts of the border with Mexico, the United States’ third-largest trading partner. His apparent targets have included pressuring Mexico into tightening its immigration enforcement and asking Congress to pass laws to make it easier to deport immigrants.

“If we don’t have the operation of our bridges, this city will not function, at all,” Eagle Pass Mayor Ramsey English Cantu said. “Without the bridges, our city is paralyzed.” Trump asserts the asylum claims are a ploy to win release to the United States, and migrants who make such claims are unlikely to be deported because of limits on the government’s authority to hold families until their cases are decided. Customs and Border Protection officials said last week that they probably will have to directly release claimants into the United States because they are overwhelmed and don’t have enough detention space.

Maria del Carmen Munoz Viguera, 62, who lives in Piedras Negras but works in Eagle Pass, arrived more than two hours late Monday to work at IBC Bank. “Mortifying,” she said. Factories could face penalties for failing to deliver goods on time. Vegetables would rot. Car parts and medical equipment would languish in boxes.

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