CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico (AP) — As soon as the sun glints over miles of border fence dividing the United States and Mexico, the engines of cargo trucks packed with auto and computer parts roar to life along border bridges and bleary-eyed workers file into factories to assemble a multitude of products geared toward the U.S. market.
For more than half a century, this daily rhythm has helped fuel the heartbeat of a transnational machine that generated more than $800 billion in trade between the U.S. and Mexico in 2024 alone.
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A ceramic statue depicting Mexico's former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is displayed for sale among a variety of figurines at a roadside curios shop in Mexicali, Mexico, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
An employee works in a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
An employee works at a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
An employee works at a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Employees work at a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
People wait for ground transportation near an exchange office in Mexicali, Mexico, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A private security officer with a sniffer dog inspects a truck loaded with sweet corn destined for the United States at the border in Mexicali, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A truck pulls newly assembled truck cabs across the border bridge, from Mexico into the United States, from Mexicali, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
National flags representing the United States and Mexico hang inside in a textile factory that produces T-shirts, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
The U.S. Border with Mexico is seen in an aerial view Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, near San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An employee works at a textile factory that produces T-shirts, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Over the past year, however, President Donald Trump's threatened 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada have plunged manufacturing hubs all along the northern Mexican border into limbo, a state that persists despite a one-month reprieve to which Trump agreed on Monday.
Tariffs would cripple Mexican border economies that are reliant on factories churning out products for the U.S. — auto parts, medical supplies, computer components, myriad electronics — and likely thrust the country into a recession, economic forecasters have warned. Some workers wonder how much longer they'll have jobs, while business leaders say the uncertainty has already led many investors to start tightening their purse strings.
“It’s a conflict between governments and we’re the ones most affected,” said 58-year-old truck driver Carlos Ponce, leaning against his rig at the customs border crossing between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas. “Tomorrow, who knows what will happen?”
Ponce, who was driving a truck full of car shock absorbers, said he's spent the past 35 years moving goods across the border, just as his father did before him. Now, he's unsure how much longer that will last.
Manufacturing in export-oriented assembly plants known as maquiladoras are the heart of Ciudad Juárez's economy, with 97% of its goods going to the U.S., according to figures from Mexico's Economic Ministry.
The factories were born in the 1960s in an attempt to boost economic development in northern Mexico and lower prices for U.S. consumers. The maquiladora program later took off after the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, was signed in 1994. The agreement was supplanted by a similar pact, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, negotiated between the three countries during Trump's first term.
Today, neon signs with the dollar-to-peso exchange rate flash across the city, a reminder of the close ties binding both sides of the border.
“Everything that happens in the United States: its economic, social policy … directly affects us because companies here in Mexico depend on what they sell in the United States,” said Thor Salayandia, head of his family's auto-parts manufacturing facility in Ciudad Juárez. "The United States also needs Mexico to keep manufacturing, but they’re not seeing things like that.”
This week, workers and business leaders alike breathed a sigh of relief when Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced she had negotiated with Trump to delay tariffs one month.
“Now, we're buying time,” Salayandia said.
Workers here assemble everything from auto parts to computer panels to T-shirts emblazoned with the American flag, logos of popular U.S. football teams and slogans such as “Proud to be a federal employee.”
Parts can cross the border multiple times before the final product is sold to U.S. consumers. That economic interdependence has left many in the city struggling to imagine a future without it. One U.S. company said it would likely have to move part of its manufacturing in the city to the U.S., but at a sharp cost.
Antonio Ruiz, a compliance officer at Tecma, a U.S. firm that helps foreign companies set up shop along the border, said his was among a number of businesses to call emergency meetings over the weekend as economic forecasters warned that the tariffs could drive Mexico into a recession.
“It’s very difficult to be prepared for something that has never happened before,” Ruiz said. “As much as you want to prepare for it, the best you can do is prepare to brace yourself in the short term.”
Salayandia and economists warn that any sort of tax could lead to cascading unemployment and rising prices on both sides of the border. In Mexico, they say, it could also spur a rise in violence in border areas by pushing the unemployed into the hands of drug cartels, as well as an increase in Mexican migration to the U.S.
Manuel Sotelo, a leader of Mexico’s National Chamber of Freight Transportation who owns a fleet of trucks that cross the border every day, sees the tariff threats as more of a political power move than a future economic reality.
"Both countries would be paralyzed," said Sotelo, who sat at a desk covered with local newspapers carrying bold headlines on the tariffs, a Trump bobblehead positioned behind him. “Let's say he did slap a 25% tariff (on Mexico), what would they do during the Super Bowl without avocados?”
On the other hand, Sotelo acknowledges that the tariff talk has already inflicted some damage. He and other business leaders say that over the past year they've watched investment dip in Ciudad Juárez because of political uncertainty, as investors hesitate to funnel their money into businesses that could collapse with the stroke of a pen in Washington.
While Trump's election has been the primary driver of that uncertainty, June elections in Mexico and a controversial judicial reform carried out by Mexico's governing party have added to it. Sotelo said he saw a 7% drop in business last year, and only expects that to continue until lingering tariff threats are resolved.
One collective of maquiladoras in the city says it has seen at least three factories halt production.
“Every time we hear this discourse from political leaders, the people running our governments, it sends shock waves through the border,” Salayandia said. "Because the border is a global thermometer. Our products go all over the world. Those companies will go look in other parts of the world where they offer conditions to keep competing.”
Associated Press journalist Fernanda Pesce contributed to this report.
A ceramic statue depicting Mexico's former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is displayed for sale among a variety of figurines at a roadside curios shop in Mexicali, Mexico, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
An employee works in a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
An employee works at a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
An employee works at a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Employees work at a textile factory in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
People wait for ground transportation near an exchange office in Mexicali, Mexico, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A private security officer with a sniffer dog inspects a truck loaded with sweet corn destined for the United States at the border in Mexicali, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A truck pulls newly assembled truck cabs across the border bridge, from Mexico into the United States, from Mexicali, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
National flags representing the United States and Mexico hang inside in a textile factory that produces T-shirts, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
The U.S. Border with Mexico is seen in an aerial view Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, near San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An employee works at a textile factory that produces T-shirts, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act to justify deploying troops as protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement persist in Minneapolis.
Trump made the threat to “quickly put an end to the travesty” after a federal officer shot a man in the leg while being attacked with a shovel and broom handle on Wednesday. The incident further heightened the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.
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The governor of Maine and the mayors of its two largest cities acknowledged widespread speculation that ICE enforcement actions are imminent in the state, which is home to large immigrant communities from Somalia and other African nations.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said aggressive enforcement actions that undermine civil rights are “not welcome” in the state. Mills, the mayors of Portland and Lewiston and Maine’s largest school district all acknowledged that the possibility of ICE enforcement has created a nervous atmosphere in Maine.
“But if they come here, I want any federal agents — and the president of the United States — to know what this state stands for: We stand for the rule of law. We oppose violence. We stand for peaceful protest. We stand for compassion, for integrity and justice,” Mills said in video released Wednesday.
Democrats across the country are proposing state law changes to rein in federal immigration officers and protect the public following the shooting death of a protester in Minneapolis and the wounding of two people in Portland, Oregon.
Many of the measures have been proposed in some form for years in Democratic-led states, but their momentum is growing as legislatures return to work amid President Donald Trump’s national immigration crackdown following the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. Republicans are pushing back, blaming protesters for impeding enforcement of immigration laws.
When Trump entered office, immigration was among his strongest issues. An AP-NORC Poll published Thursday suggests that it has since faded, a troubling sign for Trump who campaigned on crackdowns to illegal immigration.
Just 38% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling immigration, down from 49% at the start of his second term. The most recent poll was conducted January 8-11, shortly after the death of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
There are still signs that Americans give Trump some leeway on immigration issues. Nearly half of Americans — 45% — say Trump has “helped” immigration and border security in his second term.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote Thursday on social media, “Motor Tanker Veronica had previously passed through Venezuelan waters, and was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
The Veronica is the sixth tanker seized by U.S. forces as the Trump administration moves to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products, and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
Noem wrote that the raid was carried out with “close coordination with our colleagues” in the military as well as the State and Justice departments.
“Our heroic Coast Guard men and women once again ensured a flawlessly executed operation, in accordance with international law,” Noem added.
The Associated Press has reached out to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for comment on Trump’s latest threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.
During a televised speech before the latest shooting, Walz described Minnesota as being in chaos, saying what’s happening in the state “defies belief.”
“Let’s be very, very clear, this long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement,” he said. “Instead, it’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
Threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and send troops to Minneapolis, Trump noted that presidents have used the 19th century law many times. This is true — but they haven’t necessarily done it in the circumstances found in Minneapolis, where the tensions have arisen from Trump already sending federal authorities into the city.
In modern times, the act has been used to mobilize troops to help local authorities or to ensure a federal court order is carried out.
The law was last used in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to help quell riots in Los Angeles after local officials asked for the assistance. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all invoked it during the Civil Rights Movement to help enforce desegregation orders in Southern states where state and local governments were resisting.
A 1964 Justice Department memo said the act can apply in three circumstances: when a state requests help, when deployment is needed to enforce a federal court order, or when “state and local law enforcement have completely broken down.”
In a statement describing the events that led to Wednesday’s shooting, Homeland Security said federal law enforcement officers stopped a person from Venezuela who was in the U.S. illegally. The person drove away and crashed into a parked car before taking off on foot, DHS said.
After officers reached the person, two other people arrived from a nearby apartment and all three started attacking the officer, according to DHS.
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS said.
The two people who came out of the apartment are in custody, it said.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s account of what happened largely echoed that of Homeland Security. O’Hara said the man shot was in the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
Jacob Frey spoke Wednesday night after federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas into a small crowd while protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks.
“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order,” he said.
Frey described a federal force that is five times as big as the city’s 600-officer police force and has “invaded” the city, scaring and angering residents, some of whom want the officers to “fight ICE agents.”
The Department of Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down.
Trump made the threat Thursday after a federal officer trying to make an arrest shot a man in the leg Wednesday after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle. The incident further heightened the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump said in social media post.
▶ Read more about Trump’s latest threats to Minnesota
An AP-NORC poll from January found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance as president. That’s virtually unchanged from March 2025, shortly after he took office for the second time.
The new poll also shows subtle signs of vulnerability for Trump, mainly regarding the economy and immigration.
Two senators from opposite parties are joining forces in a renewed push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort that has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida on Thursday plan to introduce legislation, first shared with The Associated Press, that would bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks.
It’s the latest in a flurry of proposals in the House and the Senate to limit stock trading in Congress, lending bipartisan momentum to the issue. But the sheer number of proposals has clouded the path forward. Republican leaders in the House are pushing their own bill on stock ownership, an alternative that critics have dismissed as watered down.
▶ Read more about the cross-party effort
Senate Republicans voted to dismiss a war powers resolution Wednesday that would have limited Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela after two GOP senators reversed course on supporting the legislation.
Trump put intense pressure on five Republican senators who joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week and ultimately prevailed in heading off passage of the legislation. Two of the Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — flipped under the pressure.
Vice President JD Vance had to break the 50-50 deadlock in the Senate on a Republican motion to dismiss the bill.
The outcome of the high-profile vote demonstrated how Trump still has command over much of the Republican conference, yet the razor-thin vote tally also showed the growing concern on Capitol Hill over the president’s aggressive foreign policy ambitions.
▶ Read more about the war powers vote
While President Donald Trump says he’ll take action on Greenland whether its people “ like it or not, ” his newly handpicked U.S. special envoy is setting off on his own approach.
Gov. Jeff Landry, appointed as envoy in December, said he is not interested in meeting diplomats. The Republican has not visited the Arctic island and did not attend Wednesday’s meeting at the White House that included Danish officials, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. However, the governor was scheduled to travel to Washington on Thursday and Friday for meetings that include the topic of Greenland, Landry’s spokesperson Kate Kelly said.
▶ Read more about Landry 's new role
Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
FILE - President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
