Mexico is worried.

According to the Washington Post, the nation to our south is reacting with apprehension to a tiny change in U.S. immigration policy from President Trump, who asked would-be asylum seekers to wait their turn to adjudicate their asylum claims on the Mexican side of the border, not the American one.

It seems logical enough, but on the Mexican side, the thought wheels are churning. According to the Post:

Border cities like Tijuana could become, in effect, giant waiting rooms for the U.S. immigration system.

Mexico is not prepared to provide housing and other services for what could be thousands of migrants, according to officials and migrant advocates.

“Disaster is the only word that comes to me,” said Pat Murphy, a Catholic priest who runs Casa del Migrante, a large shelter in Tijuana. “We are already living in such a tenuous situation now.”

It's a high cost, and it's brought on by Mexico's lax border laws and tolerance of human smuggling cartels. Recall that Mexico's then-lefty candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called the right of migrants to migrate north "a human right." Now with the migrants pit-stopped there, that's made America's problem Mexico's problem, assuming they're going to pay to house, feed, and medically treat these foreigners, which they probably will.

It certainly shows that the heat is on in Mexico City, particularly with Mexican cities prepared to erupt in protest at disrespectful and entitled migrants who act more like invaders than tourists. Tijuana has already protested, and now Mexico's southern cities are murmuring protest.

That leaves one way to resolve this, which the Washington Post neglected to mention: Mexico can erect a border fence on its southern border, same as President Trump is trying to do on the U.S. southern border, to keep unauthorized migrants out. Given that it's a far shorter border, it wouldn't take much to get up. Lopez Obrador might even be able to hit the U.S. up for the funding. If he doesn't want Mexico's cities erupting in protest, he will give this most obvious of solutions some serious consideration. 

Trump tiny change may make all the difference as this issue drags on and caravans continue to form. If so, Trump deserves some credit for using this kind of leverage that actually works. Maybe that border wall President Trump is trying to get constructed would be best constructed at Mexico's southern border.

Image credit: Screenshot from CBS News This Morning, via YouTube