National Post (National Edition)
THE BORDER ‘LIKE A SIEVE’ SAYS TRUMP
STALEMATE MEANS U.S. GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN TO CONTINUE
WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump rejected a plan from Democrats on Wednesday to reopen key parts of the federal government, as a meeting of the U.S.’S top political leaders ended with few signs of progress toward ending the partial shutdown.
The president is demanding more than US$5 billion to build new walls along the U.s.-mexico border, but Democrats held fast to their opposition Wednesday. House Democrats plan to advance legislation that would reopen key parts of the government but provide Trump no new money for a wall — one of their first acts after taking control of the chamber on Thursday.
However, Trump told Congressional leaders he will not sign the measure, said incoming House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy, R-calif.
“The president’s not going to sign it . ... Now’s the time to come together, find common ground and solve this problem,” Mccarthy said. “I didn’t find the Democrats were wanting to negotiate today.”
After the White House meeting ended with no resolution, Trump summoned congressional leaders to return on Friday for more discussions. But neither side offered any indication a deal was within reach.
“We have given the Republicans a chance to take ‘yes’ for an answer,” incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., said after the meeting in the Situation Room. Earlier, Trump said the 12-day shutdown would go on “as long as it takes.”
The shutdown began Dec. 22, and its impact is spreading, particularly in the Washington region. The Smithsonian Institution closed its museums and the National Zoo on Wednesday. Trash and human waste are piling up at national parks.
The District of Columbia has stopped issuing marriage licences and the Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, and a number of other agencies have suspended or scaled back services.
All sides are now locked in a stalemate, as Republicans control the Senate and the White House while Democrats have seized the House.
There were no signs that anyone planned to budge on Wednesday.
Trump insisted Congress give him US$5.6 billion that he wants for the construction of 200 miles of wall along the Mexico border.
He has also rejected the position of his own top advisers. Vice President Mike Pence in recent days approached Democrats with a compromise offer of $2.5 billion for border security and wall improvements. But Trump on Wednesday said he would never accept that deal. “Somebody said $2.5 (billion),” Trump said to reporters. “No. Look, this is national security we’re talking about.” He described the border as being “like a sieve.”
At a section of the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, early on New Year’s Day several migrants tried to climb the metal wall. U.S. Border Patrol agents wearing camouflage and night-vision goggles and carrying assault-style rifles yelled, “Get back!” in Spanish then they fired tear gas. The migrants fled, screaming, crying and coughing. One mother was hysterical after briefly losing her children in the thick smoke and darkness.
“The children were crying,” said Jose Fajardo Anariba, 16, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. “They couldn’t tolerate it.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said tear gas, pepper spray and smoke were used to target rock throwers, not the migrants who were trying to cross.
An Associated Press photographer saw rocks thrown only after U.S. agents fired the tear gas. Customs and Border Protection said the incident would be reviewed.
At the cabinet meeting, Trump said the clash showed that “people tried to charge the border and couldn’t.” With a complete wall, no one could enter unless that person was a “champion pole vaulter.”
House Democrats Thursday plan to pass two bills: one to fund Homeland Security at current levels through Feb. 8, which would continue $1.3-billion in border barrier funding; and the other to fund the rest of the government through Sept. 30, at levels negotiated on a bipartisan basis in the Senate.
That would make it possible for Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-Ky., to send Trump a bill to reopen most of the government, while setting aside the fight over the wall.