New­som rails against Trump’s 25% tar­iff plan dur­ing south­ern bor­der vis­it: ‘It’s a betray­al’

Cal­i­for­nia Gov. Gavin New­som railed against Pres­i­dent-Elect Trump’s pro­pos­al to impose 25% tar­iffs on goods from Mex­i­co and Cana­da dur­ing a vis­it to the south­ern bor­der to announce plans to fin­ish con­struct­ing the Otay Mesa East Port of Entry on Thurs­day after­noon.

New­som described the tar­iffs as “one of the biggest tax increas­es in U.S. his­to­ry” that would affect Cal­i­for­ni­ans’ wal­lets and small busi­ness­es, espe­cial­ly farm­ers across the Gold­en State.

“Don’t think for a sec­ond this won’t impact you,” New­som said. “90% of these tar­iffs will impact bot­tom of our eco­nom­ic chain, mean­ing low­er wage work­ers that pay over half of these tax­es.”

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“There is no eco­nom­ic growth in Amer­i­ca with­out the suc­cess and the vibran­cy of this region,” he added.

Call­ing the tar­iffs a “betray­al” that is “hap­pen­ing in real time,” New­som said the new legal cross­ing would pro­mote two-way trade between Mex­i­co and the U.S. 

“You are being betrayed by these poli­cies,” New­som said.

“And those farm­ers and ranch­ers will be impact­ed dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly if these tar­iffs go into effect,” he said. “And I did­n’t even bring up the mass depor­ta­tion com­po­nents of it. You know bet­ter than I do when you look at farm work­ers, the last esti­mate, rough­ly half are undoc­u­ment­ed.”

In talk­ing about the Ota Mesa Easy Port of Entry, New­som said he hopes to have it com­plet­ed by Decem­ber 2027, with the help of the incom­ing Trump admin­is­tra­tion. 

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“We care about bor­der secu­ri­ty, but we also care about eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty, and we care about two way trade, and we care about our part­ners on the oth­er side of this bor­der that have well-estab­lished part­ner­ships.”

New­som also announced a new plan with the Cal­i­for­nia Nation­al Guard to strength­en bor­der secu­ri­ty by tar­get­ing the flow of fen­tanyl and ille­gal weapons. Near­ly 200,000 ille­gal migrants cross the bor­der into Cal­i­for­nia dai­ly through ports of entry, accord­ing to the San Diego-based Smart Bor­der Coali­tion in the sum­mer.

The move is part of New­som’s effort to reframe the con­ver­sa­tion around ille­gal immi­gra­tion flow­ing into the blue state as he posi­tions him­self for a poten­tial show­down with the incom­ing Trump admin­is­tra­tion. This week, New­som spear­head­ed an emer­gency spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sion, urg­ing law­mak­ers to approve $25 mil­lion to bol­ster the state’s legal defense against poten­tial fed­er­al law­suits lobbed by Trump.

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Between 2017 and 2021, Cal­i­for­ni­a’s Depart­ment of Jus­tice led 122 law­suits against Trump admin­is­tra­tion poli­cies, spend­ing $42 mil­lion on lit­i­ga­tion. New­som’s office said in one case, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment was ordered to reim­burse Cal­i­for­nia near­ly $60 mil­lion in pub­lic safe­ty grants.

While Cal­i­for­nia filed over 100 law­suits against the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump lobbed only four major law­suits against the state. 

Cal­i­for­nia, a sanc­tu­ary state for ille­gal immi­grants, abor­tion pro­ce­dures and trans­gen­der tran­si­tion treat­ments for chil­dren, could be tar­get­ed by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, espe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing Trump’s mass depor­ta­tion plan of ille­gal immi­grants. 

Trump called New­som’s plan an effort to “Trump-proof” the state in a Truth social post last month.