President Trump has threatened a government shutdown if Congress does not agree to hand over full funding for the border wall in the next budget proposal. At a meeting with municipal leaders in California, President Trump was optimistic, “Now we’re going for the full funding for the wall, and we’re going to try and get that as soon as possible.”
Derailing Mexico’s lack of cooperation on the illegal immigration crisis, Trump said, “Mexico does nothing for us. Mexico talks but they do nothing for us, especially at the border. They certainly don’t help us much on trade.”
The amount currently being requested for the wall is $25 billion, but even the most fiscal conservative should not be wide-eyed at this number considering the estimated burden of illegals currently in America ranges from 116 to 300 billion ANNUALLY.
More via Roll Call:
The president criticized California and its leaders for what he said was inadequate coordination with federal immigration authorities, going so far as to say he “would recommend” Justice Department officials look into obstruction of justice charges against Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for tipping off residents of a coming ICE raid earlier this year. The Justice Department already is looking into her actions.
California’s governor was unimpressed.
“@realDonaldTrump is lying on immigration, lying about crime and lying about the laws of CA. Flying in a dozen Republican politicians to flatter him and praise his reckless policies changes nothing. We, the citizens of the fifth largest economy in the world, are not impressed,” Democrat Jerry Brown tweeted on Wednesday.
Senate Democrats, however, have objected to simply handing Trump all the monies needed to complete the project. They have the numbers to block the wall funding — or to demand concessions from Trump and Republicans in return.
The disagreement over how much funding Congress should allocate in a single bill for the proposed barrier helped sink a Senate effort earlier this year to pass an immigration measure. And it could bring the country to the brink of a government shutdown later this year — just weeks before November’s congressional elections.
