President Donald Trump has threatened to shut down the government over border security, including the wall, in tweets this week, and some Republican lawmakers agree it’s crucial to address immigration.
“While neither the president or myself or any member of Congress … want a government shutdown, the president is playing his hand well and using his leverage to demand that the wall and border security be a major priority of another spending deal before the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told The Daily Signal Thursday in a phone interview.
“I was glad to see the president speak out and demand that,” he added.
Government funding runs out Sept. 30 at midnight.
“I would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for border security, which includes the wall,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Must get rid of lottery, catch-and-release, etc., and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our country.”
Trump tweeted again about the matter Tuesday:
I don’t care what the political ramifications are, our immigration laws and border security have been a complete and total disaster for decades, and there is no way that the Democrats will allow it to be fixed without a Government Shutdown…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018
…Border Security is National Security, and National Security is the long-term viability of our Country. A Government Shutdown is a very small price to pay for a safe and Prosperous America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018
In an interview with radio host Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday, the president further discussed the possibility of a shutdown, saying,
The other thing is the wall. We’ve started it. It’s like pulling teeth, though, getting these guys to get it done is. You have no idea how tough I’ve been. I say, ‘Hey, if you have a shutdown, you have a shutdown.’ … I happen to think it’s a great political thing, because people want border security.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., said Tuesday that lawmakers are aiming to “send the president a series of conference reports covering … nine of 12 appropriation bills early after we get back from the Labor Day weekend break.”
A person familiar with the July 25 meeting between McConnell; House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; and Trump told The Daily Signal in an email that “the agreement reached at the meeting was that we’re on track to get more than half of federal spending enacted before the beginning of the fiscal year and that DHS funding (including the wall) doesn’t need to be one of the bills settled before the beginning of the fiscal year.”
“The president supports the $5 billion level of funding for border security (including the wall) in the DHS bill that passed the House Appropriations committee. That will likely be a point of tension with Democrats as we work to close out final funding for [fiscal year 2019] later this year,” the source added.
Trump had originally requested $25 billion for a border wall. In a statement in July, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “The administration strongly supports the inclusion of $5 billion for border wall construction and associated technology in the Homeland Security appropriations bill.”
Banks said “there is no reason not to take this president seriously,” and referred to comments Trump made about the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, which he signed in March after threatening to veto it. At the time, Trump remarked, “I say to Congress: I will never sign another bill like this again. I’m not going to do it again.”
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., says he does not expect the president to back down on his campaign for a border wall.
“I think the president has make it very clear that he expects a physical barrier to be erected,” Buck said. “I think that personnel and interior enforcement are as important as the physical barrier, just based on my experience in law enforcement.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is running to be the next speaker of the House, says it’s important to remember it was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who started the only shutdown this year, in January over a government spending bill.
Schumer “shut the government down because he thought it was more important, amnesty was more important than funding our troops,” Jordan said.
“The president has had an amazing year and a half and he wants to get the border security wall done, just like I do, just like the American people elected us to do,” added Jordan.
Congress should have passed an immigration reform and border security bill authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., another GOP House member told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.
“We went through the big process and we lost track of regular order, which should have put the Goodlatte bill on the floor early last year,” Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., said, saying that he should make good on promises he and others ran on.
The original Goodlatte bill would require employers to use E-Verify, now a voluntary system, to check the immigration status of employees. It also would give renewable legal status to the 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients for three years, authorize a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, increase border security in other ways, and end both the visa lottery program and the practice known as chain migration.
“And so now we’re just back to basics and trying to listen to the promises we made to the American people,” Brat said. “And so we promised … border security, E-Verify, ending chain migration … and then the president really emphasized the wall as probably his signature piece, especially related to immigration.”
Wesley Coopersmith, policy director of Heritage Action for America, the lobbying affiliate of The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an email that it is fair of Trump to demand funding for border security.
“The president is right to demand Congress take action on border security before the midterm elections,” Coopersmith said. “President Trump and Republicans were elected in part to enforce existing immigration laws and securing the border. The American people need clarity on where Republicans and Democrats stand on border security, internal enforcement, and supporting ICE.”