On Monday, March 17, for the first time in over 50 years, the US government refused to send water from the Colorado River to Tijuana, a city of nearly two million inhabitants that suffers from severe shortages during the dry season. The reason, according to Trump's Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, is to force the Mexican government to add more water into the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande in the US), a river more than 1,000 kilometers from Tijuana, to satisfy farmers in Texas.

Echoing the arguments made by Republican Party figures in Texas, including Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz, the Trump administration is accusing Mexico of failing to meet the water quotas the country should be contributing to the Rio Bravo, and thereby preventing Texan farmers from irrigating their fields. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum maintained that her government will meet its commitments but acknowledged that "there has been less water" in the reservoirs due to droughts in northern Mexico.

"Water plays a central role in the relationship between the US and Mexico, and its importance is bound to grow in the future," said Martha Barcena, Mexico's ambassador to Washington from 2019 to 2021. Of the 3,175 kilometers of border separating the two countries, 2,052 kilometers follow the course of the Rio Bravo, a river that rises in the state of Colorado and meanders southeastward for over 3,000 kilometers, crossing seven mostly arid US and Mexican states before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The Colorado River marks 37 kilometers of border and supplies water to five American states as well as Baja California in Mexico.

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