Trump set to visit southern border in Texas, as ongoing federal shutdown continues

Just one day after he walked out of a contentious White House meeting with Congressional leaders, President Trump is preparing personally to visit the southern border as he continues to contemplate whether to declare a national emergency to fund a wall there.
Trump is scheduled to visit near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, a city of 143,000 on the river, on Thursday, which would be the 20th day of the ongoing partial federal government shutdown affecting nearly 800,000 federal workers. Trump is expected to be joined by his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
While details on Trump's travel schedule are scant, a local paper reported that advance teams from the Secret Service have locked down the Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas that "sits along the Rio Grande in the shadow of the Anzalduas International Bridge and is frequently patrolled by Border Patrol agents attempting to intercept those crossing into the country illegally."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders first announced the border trip on Monday, saying the president would "meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis." (The president previously viewed wall prototypes near the border in San Diego, Calif. in March 2018.)
Responding to a report in The New York Times suggesting Trump did not really want to go on the Thursday trip and saw the visit as a necessary publicity stunt organized by his communications team, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday told reporters Trump was "enthusiastic" and "does want to meet with men and women" protecting the border "to hear what it is they see, what they need."

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, file photo, floodlights from the U.S, illuminate multiple border walls, seen from Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

It increasingly appeared possible that Trump, who repeatedly has threatened to declare a state of emergency, may use the visit to determine whether to take that extraordinary step.
The National Emergencies Act grants the president broad authority to declare emergencies, and several federal laws then could clear a path for the White House to move ahead with building a wall.
One statute, 33 U.S. Code § 2293 - "Reprogramming during national emergencies," permits the president to "apply the resources of the Department of the Army’s civil works program, including funds, personnel, and equipment, to construct or assist in the construction, operation, maintenance, and repair of authorized civil works, military construction, and civil defense projects that are essential to the national defense."
TRUMP HANDS OUT CANDY, WALKS OUT OF EXPLOSIVE WHITE HOUSE MEETING WITH TOP DEMS
Another law, 10 U.S. Code § 2808 - "Construction authority in the event of a declaration of war or national emergency," permits the secretary of defense, in a presidentially declared emergency, to use "funds that have been appropriated for military construction" for the purpose of undertaking "military construction projects."
More than 35 million people watched Trump's first-ever prime-time address Tuesday night from the Oval Office on the importance of border security, which was followed by a rebuttal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Trump did not declare a state of emergency during that address, instead calling for compromise -- although he did not budge on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall.
Nevertheless, on Wednesday, both sides seemed further than ever from the compromise that Trump demanded in his address. The Democratic-led House approved a bill to fund the Treasury Department, the IRS and other agencies for the next year as part of a strategy to reopen the government on a piecemeal basis, but Senate Republicans dismissed the attempt as a nonstarter without any wall funding. Eight Republicans supported the measure.
The acting director of the White House budget office, Russell Vought, promised this week that tax refunds still would go out even if the IRS remained unfunded, because customary rules will be changed to make the payments possible. He told reporters an "indefinite appropriation" was available for the refunds, which would go out as normal.
Trump walked out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday afternoon over the partial government shutdown, Pelosi again rejected supporting new funding for a border wall, according to those in the meeting.

Workers replace sections of the border wall, left, with new sections, right, on Tuesday in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP)

 Although most top Republicans backed Trump on Wednesday -- with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., calling Trump's remarks “a firm commitment to reopening the government while also securing our southern border" -- there were some signs that not all Republicans were aligned with the White House.

GOP West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a member of the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, dismissed Trump's comments that the shutdown could go on for "years." Seven Republicans voted in favor of a Democratic bill to end the shutdown last week without funding for a border wall, and more have come out suggesting that they will back individual bills to fund certain agencies in the federal government without wall funding.
But, any defections were few and far between, Republican leaders insisted.
"Quite frankly, I see no wavering,” North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday.
Some money already has been appropriated to construct additional barriers on the southern border. In March, Congress funded 33 miles of walls and fencing in Texas, and the federal government has started surveying land along the border in the state and announced plans to start construction next month.
The government has laid out plans that would cut across private land in the Rio Grande Valley. Those in the way would include landowners who have lived in the valley for generations, environmental groups and a 19th-century chapel.
Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, meanwhile, announced this week she would visit her state’s southern border with Mexico on Friday.
Grisham, who has described Trump’s idea for a wall as outdated and ineffectual, previously indicated she would reconsider the state’s deployment of National Guard troops to the border by Republican predecessor Susana Martinez. The state sent about 180 troops.

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McConnell slams democrats over shutdown, claims partisan tantrum more important than public interest

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, as the 116th Congress begins. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) accuses democrats of hypocrisy over their stance border security as the partial government shutdown continues.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Tuesday, McConnell gave examples of numerous democrats saying they supported a physical barrier at the southern border before President Trump took office.
He included Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
McConnell referred to the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was supported by 90 democrat congress members, and included funding for fencing along around 700 miles of the southern border.
The Act was backed by Obama, Clinton, and Schumer.
McConnell also rebuked Nancy Pelosi’s recent comments that walls are “immoral.”
He claimed walls and barriers are not immoral and questioned if democrats are only opposing a barrier now because they want to oppose the President.
The GOP leader indicated democrats are willing to go against the President on any issue, for any reason, and went on to say the Senate will only vote on funding legislation that can pass and the President says he’ll sign.

Scalise, Giffords embrace on House floor on 8th anniversary of Giffords shooting

Two members of Congress -- one a Republican, the other a Democrat -- who survived gunshot wounds in recent years shared an embrace on the House floor Tuesday as they marked the eighth anniversary of the attack against one of them.
The moment shared by U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., came shortly before newly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., unveiled a gun control bill that would require background checks for private gun sales.
Eight years ago, Giffords survived an assassination attempt outside a Tucson, Ariz. supermarket where she was meeting with her constituents. Six other people were left dead and Giffords suffered significant brain injuries. Since recovering, Giffords has become one of the country’s most outspoken gun-control advocates.
Scalise survived a shooting attempt in June 2017 when a gunman targeted him as Republicans practiced for a congressional baseball game on a ballfield in Alexandria, Va. At the time he was the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership. He returned to Congress in September of that year and said he was a “living example that miracles really do happen.”
Giffords arrived in Washington to join Pelosi and Thompson for the unveiling of the new gun control bill, which would expand background checks for sales and transfers of firearms.
Giffords, who co-founded a gun safety group with her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, said in a statement Friday she was thrilled that her former House colleagues were responding to a gun-violence epidemic that killed nearly 40,000 people in 2017.
The bill calling for expanded background checks "marks a critical first step toward strengthening America's gun laws and making our country a safer place to live, work, study, worship and play," Giffords said. "I stand ready to do everything in my power to get this legislation across the finish line."
But National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action spokeswoman Jennifer Baker dismissed the Democrats' proposal, commenting that a federal background check did not prevent Giffords' shooting.
"[S]o-called universal background checks will never be universal because criminals do not comply with the law," she said.
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who is one of the NRA's biggest supporters, said the legislation "does nothing to prevent gun violence, yet threatens the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens."
Despite bipartisan support for gun control, the bill is unlikely to become law given the GOP's control of the Senate and President Trump's promise to "protect the Second Amendment."

Ocasio-Cortez still mum on taking paycheck despite 13 in Congress refusing during shutdown: report

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, left, and D-N.Y., Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., center, walk down the House steps. (AP)

Newly-elected Democratic House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, D-N.Y., who despite tweeting last month that members of Congress should ‘have some integrity’ and not take a paycheck during the government shutdown, has remained silent on whether she’ll take a salary during the partial government shutdown, despite 13 of her fellow congress members vowing that they won’t.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office on Thursday reportedly refused to respond to The Daily Mail’s inquiry about whether she’ll be taking a salary, while approximately 800,000 federal workers are furloughed or working without pay.
It was not the first time she appeared to evade or ignore the question. When asked last week by The New York Post whether she would take a salary during the government shutdown, the 29-year-old representative said: “I’ve gotta run.”
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Congressional staff and members of Congress are being paid through the shutdown because the legislative branch was funded last year through fiscal year 2019. Ocasio-Cortez’s salary kicked in last Thursday after she was sworn in as a Democratic lawmaker representing New York.
The departments of justice, interior, transportation and homeland security were either sent home or are working without pay. The first pay period for those workers is Jan. 11.
Other newly-elected lawmakers – both democratic and republican – have said they will either refuse or donate their paycheck during the shutdown, The Washington Post reported.

Trump, in first-ever prime time Oval Office address, laments 'crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul' at border

President Trump used his first-ever prime time address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night to make his case for funding a southern border wall -- as well as to emphasize the human cost of what he called the "growing humanitarian and security crisis" of surging illegal immigration.
The speech, which was followed moments later by a rebuttal from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drew seemingly deep lines in the sand as Republicans and Democrats plan to meet Wednesday to continue negotiations to end the ongoing partial federal government shutdown over border wall funding, now in its third week. Trump has said the shutdown could last for "years" if no deal is reached.
Noting that "more Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War," the president, looking directly into the camera, called for closing the pipeline that permits "vast quantities of illegal drugs – including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl" from crossing the border.
"Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone – 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border," Trump, who signed a bipartisan opioid bill into law late last year, remarked at the beginning of his address.
He continued: "This is a humanitarian crisis – a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul. Last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States – a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims by far of our broken system."
The president then paid tribute to several Americans killed by suspected illegal immigrants, including California police Cpl. Ronil Singh, who was murdered the day after Christmas -- allegedly by an illegal immigrant suspected of driving drunk. The suspect had multiple prior arrests, and Republicans have charged that California's sanctuary laws -- which prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities -- led to Singh's murder.
"America’s heart broke the day after Christmas when a young police officer in California was savagely murdered in cold-blood by an illegal alien who just came across the border," Trump said. "The life of an American hero was stolen by someone who had no right to be in our country."
TUCKER CARLSON: WHY DO SOME CONTINUE TO DENY ISSUES AT THE BORDER?
Trump added: "In California, an Air Force Veteran was raped, murdered and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In Georgia, an illegal alien was recently charged with murder for killing, beheading, and dismembering his neighbor. In Maryland, MS-13 gang members who arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors were arrested and charged last year after viciously stabbing and beating a 16-year-old girl.

"Wealthy politicians ... don’t build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside."
— President Trump

"Over the last several years, I’ve met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration," Trump continued. "I’ve held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief-stricken fathers. So sad. So terrible.  I will never forget the pain in their eyes, the tremble in their voices, or the sadness gripping their souls. How much more American blood must be shed before Congress does its job?"
Apparently responding to Pelosi's widely reported comment that a wall would be immoral, Trump remarked: "Some have suggested a barrier is immoral.  Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their homes? They don’t build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside."
In a joint, nationally televised response broadcast minutes later, Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned Trump's rhetoric and what they called his "obsession" with building a border wall.
"Much of what we have heard from President Trump throughout this senseless shutdown has been full of misinformation and even malice," Pelosi, standing next to Schumer, charged. "The President has chosen fear.  We want to start with the facts."
"The fact is: On the very first day of this Congress, House Democrats passed Senate Republican legislation to re-open government and fund smart, effective border security solutions," Pelosi said, referring to bills that did not include funding for Trump's border wall.
"But, the president is rejecting these bipartisan bills which would re-open government – over his obsession with forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall – a wall he always promised Mexico would pay for," Pelosi continued.
Schumer added afterward: "There is an obvious solution: separate the shutdown from the arguments over border security.  There is bipartisan legislation – supported by Democrats and Republicans – to re-open government while allowing debate over border security to continue.
"The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a thirty-foot wall," Schumer concluded. "So, our suggestion is a simple one, Mr. President: Re-open the government and we can work to resolve our differences over border security.  But end this shutdown now."
On social media, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) called out Schumer and Pelosi's previously strong support for border wall funding, and appeared to join in with other Twitter users mocking the two senators' demeanor during their response address.
Conservative commentator Ben Shaprio compared Pelosi and Schumer's look to that of the nefarious fictional villains from the James Bond spy franchise, before reposting another Twitter user's image depicting Schumer as a used car salesman. Others likened Pelosi to the aristocratic character Lucille Bluth in the television comedy series "Arrested Development."
Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, widely considered a potential 2020 presidential contender, delivered his own rebuttal that asserted climate change and health care are more urgent crises than illegal immigration. Sanders listed a variety of people who will potentially suffer if the shutdown continues.
"Security at our nation’s airports could be threatened if TSA employees and air traffic controllers are not getting paid," Sanders said. "You want a national emergency?  30 million Americans have no health insurance and many more are under-insured."
Negotiations are slated to continue throughout the week to resolve the shutdown, which has furloughed 380,000 federal workers and forced an additional 420,000 to work without pay. On Wednesday, Fox News learned, Trump will head to Capitol Hill for a policy lunch with Senate Republicans. Congressional leaders from both parties have been invited to the White House for a 3 p.m. ET sit-down afterward.
The president, during his address Tuesday, vowed that the wall "would very quickly pay for itself" in part because the cost of "illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion dollars a year – vastly more than the $5.7 billion dollars we have requested from Congress." Trump added that "the wall will also be paid for, indirectly, by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico."

Migrants running as U.S. Border Protection officers threw tear gas to the Mexican side of the border fence on Jan. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

On Thursday, Trump plans a personal visit to the Mexican border, where his administration said an illegal immigration "crisis" has been worsening by the day.
Reacting to Trump's speech, Senate Republican leaders -- who have said they will not pass Democrats' spending bills without border wall funding -- reaffirmed that they've stood by the White House's position.
“Tonight, President Trump reaffirmed his commitment to addressing the humanitarian and security crisis at our nation’s southern border," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement. "His proposal to increase security through physical barriers suits the reality on the ground. It’s what career Border Patrol experts support and are asking for. And it simply builds on earlier legislation that Senate Democrats like then-Senator Obama, then-Senator Clinton, and Senator Schumer previously supported with enthusiasm."
McConnell continued: “The past eighteen days have shown that Democrats’ refusal to negotiate is not due to any principled objection, but simply due to partisan spite for the president. For the men and women of the Border Patrol, for the safety of American families, and for all Americans who deserve a fully operational federal government, I sincerely hope my Democratic colleagues will come to the table and help deliver a solution.”
Some legal and political analysts were less enthusiastic. “As expected, [Trump's address] was laden with emotional appeals, with the president presenting a parade of horribles," John Cerone, Professor of International Law at The Fletcher School, told Fox News. He added that a wall would have only "limited efficacy" compared to other options.
"Ultimately, the only way to stop irregular migration is to give people some hope of regular migration," Cerone said. "Expanding pathways for regular migration, in particular by creating new employment visas and raising the limits on existing categories, is a win-win situation."
The number of illegal border crossings is down from 1.6 million in 2000 to less than 400,000 last year. But, the number of families coming over the border has risen sharply, putting a strain on health care and immigration services that came into sharp focus with the deaths of two migrant children in December.
Administration figures have shown that 161,000 family units crossed the border in fiscal 2018, a 50 percent increase from the year before. Homeland Security officials also have said 60,000 unaccompanied children crossed the border last year, a 25 percent increase.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, left, Vice President Mike Pence, White House legislative affairs aide Ja'Ron Smith, followed by White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, and others, after a meeting with staff members of House and Senate leadership last Saturday in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

After a sit-down with Democrats over the weekend, the White House issued a series of budget demands, including a new request for $800,000 for humanitarian needs. But, mostly, Trump still wants his wall, which Democrats have described as immoral as well as no solution to illegal immigration.
In a pre-emptive move, the White House said Monday that tax refunds would be paid despite the shutdown. That shutdown exemption would break from past practice and could be challenged.
Emphasizing that he was not abandoning his security argument, Trump said in a fundraising email Tuesday: "I want to make one thing clear to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi: Your safety is not a political game or a negotiation tactic!"
Pelosi, for her part, has also sparred openly with the White House. She reportedly engaged in a tense confrontation with Nielsen on Wednesday in the Situation Room, interrupting Nielsen’s presentation on border security and illegal immigration, telling her, “I reject your facts.”
In her brief response address on Tuesday night, Pelosi used the word "facts" six times, in an effort to contrast with what she called Trump's rhetoric of "fear."

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Pelosi, Schumer say Democrats should get 'equal airtime' after Trump address

Democratic leaders on Monday night called for equal airtime in response to President Donald Trump's primetime address to the nation on southern border security scheduled for Tuesday evening.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued that since Trump's speech will be broadcast, the other side of the aisle should have their fair share of broadcast time, too.
“Now that the television networks have decided to air the President’s address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime," they said in a statement.
Trump said he'll be talking at 9 p.m. ET about the U.S.-Mexico border — the fight over which sparked the partial government shutdown. The address will be carried live by ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC and NBC.
Pelosi and Schumer said that Democrats "and an increasing number of Republicans in Congress" have urged Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to "re-open the government while Congress debates the President’s expensive and ineffective wall."
The government is on day 16 of the partial shutdown — the second-longest in history slated to become the longest this weekend.
Trump told congressional Democratic leaders during a meeting on Friday that he was willing to keep the government shutdown for as long as necessary — possibly months or even years — in order to get the border funding he wants.
After a weekend filled with meetings about the shutdown, the president moved to call for a steel wall, rather than a concrete barrier, at the southern border. Trump framed the pitch for a steel wall as a concession to Democrats to move negotiations along, although they do not appear moved by the president's message.
"President Trump keeps rejecting the bipartisan House-passed bills, which have already received strong bipartisan support in the Senate, to re-open the government," Pelosi and Schumer's statement read. "Instead, he is still demanding that American taxpayers pay at least $5.7 billion for his wall, which can’t pass either chamber of Congress and of course Mexico is not paying for."