Trump has become GOP obstacle in talks about a secure border as shutdown looms
Republican lawmakers negotiating a border security deal to avoid another partial government shutdown are running into an increasingly familiar obstacle in President Donald Trump.
With two weeks left to pass funding bills that keep federal agencies open, Trump is making comments that appear to foreclose possible compromises by saying anything short of a wall is a waste of time — even as Democrats suggest they’re open to spending billions more on border security and new fencing.
“It obviously makes it more challenging,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, an adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “We keep talking and try to understand where he is and try to work it out.”
At stake is the possibility of another government shutdown, and Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Congress last week voted to reopen the government temporarily — after a partial shutdown lasted five weeks — to give lawmakers on a House-Senate conference committee time to negotiate a border security plan.
Reputation for disruption
Two years into his term, Trump has built a track record of killing congressional deals. Last year, he blew up a bipartisan agreement to provide deportation protections for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents in exchange for $25 billion in wall funding, demanding that controversial cuts to legal immigration be added. In December, he precipitated the shutdown by withdrawing support for a two-month stopgap spending bill that had passed the Senate unanimously.
At times, Trump has appeared willing to accept new fencing as a resolution to his demand for $5.7 billion for the wall. At other times, he says he will only accept a wall. Making matters more complicated, the president has described existing fence and levee projects on the border as a wall.
Top Republican negotiator Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said the involvement of Trump — and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. — complicates negotiations.
“If left alone, we could probably work this out before the end of the week but that’s not the case right now because the speaker is involved and the president is involved,” he said.
In an interview with the New York Times, published Thursday night, the president said the talks would likely be fruitless and that he might pursue a solution on his own. Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that Republicans on the committee are “wasting their time. Democrats, despite all of the evidence, proof and Caravans coming, are not going to give money to build the DESPERATELY needed WALL.”
That was a shift from earlier in the week when Trump called for a wall or a “physical barrier” as part of the deal.
Pelosi reiterated Thursday that she won’t fund a “wall,” but she signaled flexibility on fencing.
But there are vehicle barricades known as Normandy fencing along the border, and, Pelosi said, “if the president wants to call that a wall, he can call it a wall.”
“Is there a place where enhanced Normandy fencing would work?” she said, adding that members of the bipartisan conference committee should “have that discussion.”
Similar hints of compromise came from top Democratic negotiator Nita Lowey of New York, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee. She didn’t rule out new fencing money. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said some new fencing could be possible if local authorities can control where it goes.
Democrats make offer
House Democrats on Thursday provided a detailed offer that would provide no funds for border barriers, though it shows the party is willing to provide billions for technology and personnel. The offer includes $98 million for 1,000 new customs officers, $675 million for more imaging technology at land ports of entry, $400 million for other border technology procurement and $502 million for humanitarian aid for migrants.
The president hasn’t made clear to Republicans the details of his position, complicating negotiations. Asked if she understands Trump’s stance clearly enough to make a deal, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. said, “We’re trying to get there. It might be barriers or fencing or levees and things of this nature.”
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said a deal will come together if Pelosi agrees to some type of barrier.
Avoid shutdown at all costs
“It might be a ‘wall,’ it might be ‘infrastructure,’ it might be ‘a barrier,’ it might be ‘a wangdoodle’ for all I know,” he said. “She can call it what she wants.”
Senate Republicans said they are eager to move beyond the threat of another shutdown and hope Trump will seal a deal.
“I don’t think another government shutdown is going to help anybody,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. “It’s a lose-lose-lose situation.”
Tally of force-fed detainees up to 9
Three times a day, a 22-yearold Indian man on a hunger strike says, he is dragged from his cell in a Texas immigration detention center and put on a bed where he says his arms and legs are strapped down and a group of people force-feed him by pouring liquid into tubes pushed through his nose.
The man is among a group of nine detainees in the El Paso facility who immigration officials acknowledged Friday are being hydrated and fed against their will under court orders. That’s up from six men who were being fed through nasal tubes Wednesday when The Associated Press first reported on the force-feeding.
In a statement, ICE said it fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference.
“ICE does not retaliate in any way against hunger strikers. ICE explains the negative health effects of not eating to our detainees. For their health and safety, ICE closely monitors the food and water intake of those detainees identified as being on a hunger strike,” the agency said.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, visited some of the men after the initial reports, tweeting afterward that their situation is “unacceptable.”
Human Rights Watch published a dispatch Friday describing force-feeding as “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”