President-elect Donald Trump's threatened 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada will have a "positive impact" on bringing the United States borders with those countries under control, Terrell County, Texas, Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, a retired Border Patrol agent, told Newsmax Sunday.
"It's not the first time that he's utilized this tactic, or it probably really isn't a tactic," Cleveland told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "If he's saying he's going to do it, he's going to do it."
He noted that Trump also enacted tariffs during his first presidency, "and what we saw for the first time ever was Mexico's government on the U.S.-Mexico border as well as on their southern border with Guatemala patrolling. So if he's saying it, he'll do it and it will have a positive impact."
Cleveland also said he foresees the Canadian border becoming more of a priority for Trump in his upcoming presidency, along with the Mexican border.
"We're both Mexico and Canada's biggest trade partner and they rely heavily on the United States not just for trade, but for security [and] for military support," said Cleveland.
But at the same time the United States can't rely on either country to solve its border problems, so "we have to engage them and see about getting some help from them," he said.
Meanwhile, the concerns about illegal immigration are continuing to grow on the border with Canada, but the U.S. relationship with Canada's government and law enforcement is different than it is with Mexico, said Cleveland.
"Canada is primarily a country that we work [with] their Royal Canadian Mounted Police, [with which] we have a trusted partner," he said. "Unfortunately down in Mexico it's a country full of corruption … you're dealing with two different dynamics there, a country we can trust versus a country that is primarily run by the cartels."
Trump has advertised a large-scale advertising campaign against the dangers of fentanyl, and Cleveland agreed that the crisis is taking hundreds of thousands of American lives.
"I've gone across the country speaking at various events, Jack Foundation, the Forever 15 project, Lost Voices of Fentanyl," he said. "Those that have been poisoned by fentanyl and the posters that they have, the majority of them are youth, and the majority of them look just like my kids and the parents I meet, they look just like me."
Cleveland added that if musicians and professional athletes can be recruited to get the word out, "I foresee President Trump being able to accomplish a lot with that messaging campaign."
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