Truckers, stores on U.S.-Mexico border struggle as Trump closure threat looms

Trucks wait in a long queue at border customs control to cross into the U.S, caused by the redeployment of border officers to deal with a surge in migrants, at the Otay border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Trucks inched through traffic and some stores reported fewer customers in U.S.-Mexico border towns on Wednesday, as staffing shortages tied to a surge in asylum seekers slowed checkpoints and threats of closing the border completely scared shoppers.

U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to close the border, or parts of it, saying Congress could avert such a shutdown by changing laws to fix what he called immigration "loopholes."