Trump blasts no movement on border wall
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump demanded that Congress pass new border legislation using the “Nuclear Option if necessary” to muscle it through the Senate — a drastic change in rules the Republican leader has previously dismissed.
Trump tweeted Monday that the U.S. must build a border wall, but argued that “Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!” He also said that a deal to help “Dreamer” immigrants is “dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act.”
Trump has previously called for the “nuclear option” — changing Senate rules to end the filibuster. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has dismissed that option in the past, saying Republicans will welcome the filibuster if they return to being the Senate minority.
The White House did not immediately answer questions about Trump’s tweets. The $1.3 trillion funding package Congress passed last month included $1.6 billion in border wall spending. But much of that money can only be used to repair existing segments, not build new sections. Congress also put restrictions on the types of barriers that can be built.
Trump began tweeting over the weekend on immigration from Florida, threatening to pull out of a free trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the U.S. The U.S., Canada and Mexico are participating in tense negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement at Trump’s insistence.
He also claimed that people are flowing over the border “trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!”
It was not immediately clear what Trump was referring to when he said people are coming to take advantage of the program
Former President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to provide temporary protection and work permits to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally after being brought here as children. The Obama administration allowed signups during a set period of time, and the program is closed to new entrants.
Trump ended the program last year, but gave Congress six months to pass legislation enshrining it. A deal has so far proved elusive and Trump has blamed Democrats.
The Department of Homeland Security is not issuing new permits, though existing ones can be renewed.
Proposed DACA deals crafted by lawmakers and rejected by Trump also were not open to new participants.
Trump did not explain what he meant when questioned by reporters as he entered the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea for an Easter Sunday service on Sunday, but again blamed Democrats for failing to protect the “Dreamers.”
“The Democrats have really let them down,” he added during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, adding: “It’s a shame.”
Trump’s comments also ignore the fact that the DACA solution he proposed mustered only 39 votes in the Senate, not enough to pass even if the Senate did approve the nuclear option. Meanwhile, the bipartisan option the White House vigorously lobbied against did gain a majority of votes, but fell six votes shy of the 60 needed to advance under Senate rules.
Trump promised during the 2016 presidential campaign to build a Southern border wall to stop illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico, but Congress has frustrated him by not moving as quickly as he wants to provide money for construction.
The president also complained on Twitter that border patrol agents can’t do their jobs properly because of “ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws” that allow people caught for being in the country illegally to be released while they await a hearing before a federal immigration judge. Trump tweeted that the situation is “Getting more dangerous” and “Caravans” are coming. The president’s tweets came after Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” reported early Sunday on what it said is a group of 1,200 immigrants, mostly from Honduras, headed to the U.S.
About 1,100 migrants, many from Honduras, have been marching in a caravan along roadsides and train tracks in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca. It is scheduled to end with a conference on migration issues in Puebla, east of Mexico City. Individuals may try and reach the U.S. border