In this newspaper article, the first claim is that shutting down the U.S- Mexico border will have an economic impact, but the security of the nation is more important (Wilkie, & Higgins, 2019). The two nations have strong economic ties. However, Trump views the border as one of the contributing factors to the insecurity in the United States. Therefore, according to Trump, it is better to risk the economic aspect of the country rather than security. Security comes first so even if the border is not shut down it means that the risk of insecurity will affect the country economically because no investor wants to put his/her money in a country where there are security threats.

Data support the claim that security is more important than trade that security benefits from the shutdown will be more significant than the economic ones (Wilkie, & Higgins, 2019). The Majority Leader for Senate McConnell provides the first counterclaim which states that closing the border will be an economic disaster. This claim is supported by Neil Bradley who works at the America Chamber of Commerce as the chief policy officer.

This claim is supported by stating that the move to close the border will cause uncertainties in the trade although the reason for the shutdown is to make all trade activities legal (Wilkie, & Higgins, 2019). Additionally, the shutdown plan is disastrous because the trade between the two countries amounts to more than $ 1.7 billion per day. Also, approximately half a million Mexican citizens cross the border legally every day.

The article also contains warrant as per the Toulman argument model. Warrant(s) acts as a bridge between the statements argued (claim) and the evidence presented (data).  The warrant given in the first claim is that the security of the nation is important than the economic benefits (Wilkie, & Higgins, 2019). The warrant for the second argument is that the executive officials of the White House were looking for ways of reducing the impact of border shutdown.

The backup for the second claim is that the majority of the Mexican immigrants cross the border as tourists, students, employees as well as shoppers (Wilkie, & Higgins, 2019). The contribution of these people in the U.S economy should not be undermined because in one way or the other they play a role. Shutting down the border will create a stereotype and the Mexican citizens will feel unwelcomed in America. The assumption will be that they are bad people whose presence in the U.S poses security threats.

According to Toulman, a disqualifier is very significant when presenting arguments (Hitchcock, 2017). In this article, the top officials for White house are looking for a remedy for the effects of implementing the first claim. Even if the border is shut down the exceptions should be made (Wilkie, & Higgins, 2019). This can be achieved by allowing trucks to cross the border whether they are sealed or not. By doing so, the supply chains will not be affected much so the economic impact will be eased.

The article contains rebuttals which according to Toulman are counter-arguments (Hitchcock, 2017). One of them is presented by McConnell who argues that shutting down the border will be catastrophic (Wilkie, & Higgins, 2019). On the contrary, Kudlow supports the main first claim by President Trump.  He supports immigration policies because if he thinks they can be implemented without causing economic threats.

The article is well presented with logical sense because all the claim is backed up with data to provide the evidence. The author has made good use of Toulman argument model which is the main factor that has made the article easy to read and understand.

References

Hitchcock, D. (2017). Good Reasoning on the Toulmin Model. On Reasoning and Argument (pp. 371-387). Springer, Cham.

Wilkie, C., & Higgins, T. (2019). Trump on closing the border: ‘Security is more important to me than trade.’ Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/02/trump-on-closing-border-security-is-more-important-to-me-than-trade.html