Republican strategist Scott Jennings and Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell engaged in a heated debate over border security and tariffs on Mexican goods Thursday night.

In a November 25 post on Truth Social, Trump unveiled plans to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada, urging the two countries to take stronger action to curb the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States.

Rampell criticized the move, noting that the price of avocados would rise, as Mexico supplies 90% of the U.S. market.

“I would love to talk about what Trump plans to do about this, and how not only will he fail at his promise at bringing grocery prices down, he will probably drive them up higher for a number of reasons,” the WaPo columnist began.

“One of which is that he wants to deport most of our farm labor, labor force, not only the people who are here who are without authorization, people who are undocumented, but actually we have a lot of workers here who are on visas, temporary, basically seasonal agricultural visas, who are here legally, a visa program he wants to end,” Rampell claimed.

“He wants to deport lots of people from other parts of the food processing system, people who work in meatpacking plants. Again, people who are here legally and who are not here legally,” she added.

Trump has repeatedly said he is focused on people who are in the country illegally.

“Beyond that, he wants to raise tariffs on the food that we bring in from other countries,” Rampell continued. “We get 90% of our avocados from Mexico and something like two thirds of our fresh tomatoes. These things will drive prices up, you know, so it’s not only a matter of — it’s hard to get them back down, it’s easy to get them up higher.”

Rampell, former Democratic State Representative Bakari Sellers of South Carolina, and host Abby Phillip then sparred with former Republican Senate candidate Jeff Bartos over the Trump economy before Jennings interjected.

“It’s not just going to be a negotiating tactic, there are going to be tariffs,” Phillip said, prompting Jennings to ask, “What‘s it worth to anybody to actually get these other countries, especially Mexico, to get their attention on immigration and drugs and everything else? What’s it worth? Is it — for you, you’re not willing to pay a quarter more for an avocado to fix this?”

Jennings exchanged more words with Rampell after the latter laughably claimed Mexico was cooperating.

“A year ago, the Mexican government deployed a lot more resources to their own southern border and have intercepted migrants on their way. Why are you shaking your head? This is the absolute truth. This is why —” Rampell claimed before Jennings cut in, saying, “It’s a mess.”

“That’s why border crossings are down 75%. They’re about what they were when Trump was in office,” Rampell said, with Jennings repeating, “It’s a mess.”

Border crossings are down only because Mexico recently began enforcing its own immigration laws earlier this summer ahead of the 2024 elections, likely to give Vice President Kamala Harris a talking point. But throughout her and Joe Biden’s term, illegal crossings set records for years.

Also, after Trump’s threat, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum picked up the phone and had a conversation with the president-elect, claiming publicly that her country would begin additional enforcement efforts to turn migrant columns around before they reached the U.S. border.