WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th January, 2019) President Donald Trump threatened to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall on the US southern border without congressional approval after failing to reach a deal with lawmakers to reopen the Federal government which has been partially shut down for two weeks.
The US government shut down on December 22 after Democrats refused to provide $5.6 billion in next year's budget to build a wall on the southern border as Trump has demanded.
Lawmakers in the US House, which now has a Democratic majority, passed two resolutions - H.R. 21 and 1 - to reopen the federal government despite the fact that the White House Budget Office on Thursday said the Trump administration would veto the spending bills because they lacked border security funding. In addition, leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate vowed to reject the resolution for the very same reason.
H.R. 21 would fund the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Justice, Interior, State, Transportation, and the Treasury through September 30, while H.R. 1 would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through February 8.
Democratic leaders and Trump failed to reach a compromise over the shutdown during a meeting at the White House later on Friday.
"We told the president we needed the government open. He resisted. In fact, he said he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time: Months or even years," Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Trump on Friday.
Trump later confirmed to reporters that he indeed told the Democratic leaders the government could be shut down for years. However, the president also said he doubted that it would.
"So we had a productive meeting today with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer," Trump said. "I've designated a group, and we're going to be meeting over the weekend, that group, to determine what we're going to do about the border."
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Friday that the meeting over the weekend will be an attempt for Trump's top people to come up with an agreement to recommend to congressional leaders to end the government shutdown.
According to a pool report released early Friday evening, the White House is scheduling a meeting with Congressional leaders' staff members on Saturday at 11.00 a.m. local time (4:00 p.m. GMT).
The goal of the meeting will be to work towards an agreement that secures the US border and ends the government shutdown, the pool report said.
Trump during the same briefing earlier, however, vowed to take drastic action to bypass congressional approval if he did not get the funding to build the border wall.
"We can call a national emergency and build it [the wall] very quickly," Trump said. "I can do it if I want. I may do it."
Trump said the government shutdown would not end until the crisis on the border resolved.
His threat to declare a national emergency drew the wrath of some Democratic lawmakers who said he might try to use the military.
"The President stealing resources from the Defense Department for the construction of a wasteful border wall, at taxpayer expense, to defend against the President's imaginary invasion would make our country less safe and the men and women of our military less safe," Senator Patrick Leahy said in a statement on Friday. "There is no national emergency on the southern border... the real national emergency is the President's senseless and costly shutdown."
Trump did not say how he could fund a wall, since the Constitution gives power over federal spending to Congress.
Homeland Security Department chief Kirsten Nielsen told reporters on Friday that US border agents have stopped more than 3,000 illegal aliens at the southern border the intelligence community has identified as potential terrorists.
When asked about federal government employees that are not getting paid during the shutdown Trump said most of them are "the biggest fans" of what his administration is trying to do with respect to the border.
A go-fund-me campaign reported earlier this week that nearly $20 million has been collected from private donors for a wall, far short of the $5.6 billion demanded by Trump as a price for re-opening the US government, which has been partially closed for the past 14 days.
Currently there is nearly 600 miles worth of barrier, primarily consisting of 16-foot high fencing, along the 1,900-mile US-Mexico border. Trump wants to erect steel and/or concrete walls over 30 feet tall on more than 200 miles of the border that would include new and replacement barriers.
