Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Thursday said Democrats’ unwillingness to negotiate funding for a border wall has justifiably forced President Trump to find a way to pay for it by whatever means possible.
“Speaker Pelosi’s refusal to negotiate on funding for a border wall/barrier — even if the government were to be reopened — virtually ends the congressional path to funding for a border wall/barrier,” Graham said in a statement. “It is time for President Trump to use emergency powers to fund the construction of a border wall/barrier.”
“I hope it works,” Graham said.
Trump and Democrats have been unable to reach a deal to fund one-quarter of the federal government over his call for any bill to include $5.7 billion for a border barrier.
As a result, 800,000 government workers have been furloughed or have been working without pay since Dec. 22.
Trump was reported Thursday to be considering using billions of dollars of Army Corps of Engineers funding to build more than 300 miles of barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump spoke with top defense officials while flying to the southern border Thursday about having Army Corps of Engineers build a 30-foot bollard-style steel barrier along 315 miles of the 2,000-mile boundary. Around 600 miles have a wall or other type of restrictive boundary.
The project would take 18 months from start to finish. New or enhanced barriers would go in at areas with the highest levels of illegal immigration, including the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas; San Diego, Calif.; El Centro, Calif.; and Yuma, Ariz.
The president would have to declare a national emergency, which under U.S. law would give him the authority to take money from civil works projects and appropriate it for the border barrier.
The money Trump would tap into would be from projects where natural disasters have devastated regions of Puerto Rico and California.
