There was a point where President Trump looked like he was flinching on immigration, his most polarizing and powerful issue, but it at least appears that he’s come somewhat out of his stupor.
In a new interview with Politico, Trump said he’ll take a hard pass on accepting any government funding bill that doesn’t include a puny $5 billion for his proposed “wall” on the southern border.
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“We need border security, of which a wall is part of it,” he said. “But we need border security. All you have to do is look at the borders. I don’t do anything … just for political gain,” he said. “But I will tell you politically speaking, that issue is a total winner.”
He continued, “People look at the border, they look at the rush to the police, they look at the rock throwers and really hurting three people, three very brave Border Patrol folks – I think that it’s a tremendous issue, but much more importantly, is really needed. So we have to have border security.”
Congressional Democrats (and up until recently, even Senate Republicans) have said they’re willing to give $1.6 billion. But even if Trump were to get the full $5 billion, that’s a fraction of what any physical barrier is going to cost, with estimates reaching closer to $30 billion to cover 1,000 miles.
Trump is at least right, though, that he’s on the right side when it comes to any attempt at controlling the madhouse at the border and the anarchy that is our immigration system.
A CBS poll released over the summer showed that 41 percent of Americans believe a wall-like barrier on the border is a good thing to at least try. More Americans, 48 percent, called the idea “bad.”
But that was before the caravan showed up at the gates and threatened to bum-rush U.S. border patrol agents. That was before an Associated Press report on Tuesday said that a detention camp for illegal immigrant children in Texas, which was intended to be temporary, had swelled into a “tent city” and is on track to cost taxpayers $430 million.
Democrats know this isn’t their issue, even when Americans agree with them on the particulars.
Americans overwhelmingly support a permanent fix to the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program, which allows children brought to the U.S. illegally to remain in the country. Yet when congressional Democrats threatened to shut down the government over the issue, they quickly caved, recognizing the reality that even if Americans sympathize with the DACA kids, they don’t think their whole government should be held hostage for them.
Trump had been on his heels over the immigration ever since he bent over to the liberal lie that his administration had a “new policy” to separate illegal immigrant families at the border. Losing the House to Democrats in the midterm elections also didn’t help his fragile mood.
But there is just over a week before some government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, run out of money, and he’s asking for pennies to manage the free-for-all immigration system.
That really is a “winner.”
