Trump and Democrats Meet Again on Shutdown but Remain Far Apart on His Border Wall Demand

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "no wall" — non now, not e'er — she meant it.

Only dissimilar President Donald Trump, who seems to modify the name and definition of the border wall by the day, "the wall" means something very specific to Pelosi. It's a symbol of Trump's political ascension, one that was defined by a relentless race-baiting campaign that painted brown people equally murderous criminals.

When Pelosi says Democrats will never vote for "the wall," she is not saying that Democrats will forever oppose funding physical barriers on the southern edge. After all, between 2007 and 2015, Community and Border Protection spent $2.3 billion edifice and maintaining 654 miles of physical barriers on the southern border, which Democrats supported, and Democrats have voted for funding as recently as 2018. Equally one top Democratic aide said, they would support physical barriers again, if it "makes sense."

What Pelosi is saying is that Trump doesn't go to shut down the authorities as a way to fulfill a campaign promise — especially one that carries the baggage of his anti-clearing platform. That's where Trump and Republicans misunderstand Pelosi and Democrats' position on the government shutdown and edge wall fight. On Friday, Trump told reporters that Democrats can call the wall whatever they like, as long every bit they give him the money to build information technology.

"This is where I inquire the Democrats to come back to Washington and to vote for money for the wall, the barrier, whatever you want to phone call it is okay with me," Trump said. "They can name it any they [want]. Proper noun it 'peaches.'"

But semantics are not the same as symbolism. Equally long as Trump's "wall" — the campaign rallying cry — is the centerpiece of the White House's edge security demand, don't expect Democrats to engage.

"No matter how y'all put lipstick on this pig, [the wall] is nonetheless a campaign promise that he has failed to evangelize because he lied about it," said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), who represents a border district.

For Democrats to vote for it, border security tin can't be centered on physical barriers

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) speaks during a meeting almost immigration with US President Donald Trump and Republican and Democratic members of Congress in the Cabinet Room at the White House January nine, 2018, in Washington, DC

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a more than bourgeois Democrat from a border district, has some sketches of concrete barriers that he said would also serve as a flood deterrent and community infinite on the Rio Grande river in Laredo, Texas. He says it's the kind of compromise Trump should be talking about.

But Cuellar wants to exist clear: He continues to be staunchly opposed to "the wall," calling information technology a fundamental misunderstanding of the needs of the southern border. In fact, all 9 lawmakers who stand for the nation's southern border in the House, including Republican Rep. Will Hurd, have opposed every iteration of Trump's border wall.

Almost all of them have supported physical barriers on the border in some form. But they say that can't be the centerpiece of the proposal.

"I don't recollect we are talking near anything that can't exist resolved," Grijalva said. "[But] if the principal detail is the wall, then no."

He continued, "We are talking virtually something comprehensive. We are not talking near some rhetorical outcome of the wall. Nosotros are talking nearly ports of entry, we are talking most fully funding customs, nosotros are talking virtually detentions."

Of course, at that place are policy perspectives on edge security inside the Democratic conference that range from members of the Congressional Hispanic Conclave and the larger progressive contingent that would never vote for another mile of fencing on the border to moderate Democrats who are willing to negotiate with Republicans.

Some more than moderate members are citing the Uniting and Securing America Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that enshrined the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into constabulary besides every bit instructed DHS to develop a "comprehensive southern edge strategy to reach border control," build more ports of entry and increase the number of judges on the southern border.

Democrats want to see the cost-benefit analysis of a border wall. Customs and Border Protection hasn't had measures in place to appraise the contributions of fencing and barriers to overall edge security, co-ordinate to multiple reports from the Authorities Accountability Office. This was the case fifty-fifty dating back to 2005 when the bipartisan Secure Fence Act was passed.

"They actually didn't take a fashion to quantify or talk nigh how fencing was contributing to border security," said Rebecca Gambler, the director of homeland security and justice issues at the GAO. The Department of Homeland Security and CBP have said they would come up with metrics and a cost assay by September 30, 2019.

"I stick to the notion that the Homeland Security experts tell usa that there are smarter investments to make," Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA), who chairs the grouping of moderates known equally the New Democrats, said. "Investments in technology, in sensor technology, drone applied science — that can accept far greater impact in terms of protecting national security. There's a legitimate contend to exist had on these homeland security issues."

And if a DHS inquiry came back and said barriers were the most cost-effective manner to protect the border, Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA), who represents the edge district in San Diego, said there would be a strong contingent of Democrats who would be supportive.

"But that's not what the president is talking about," he said.

In other words, Democrats want the contend most edge security to be holistic. But they are clashing about whether it's possible to have that word while Trump is in the White Business firm.

Democrats know that to Trump, a wall past any other name nonetheless smells as sugariness

People hold signs that read "Build that Wall" as they wait for the start of a entrada rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Trump has made "the wall" mean many things since inbound office. On the 2016 campaign trail, information technology quite literally meant a 50-foot concrete wall along the ii,000-mile border. Over the by two years, the wall has go "run across-through" and perhaps less face-to-face (there are canyons and rivers, later on all). In the by several months, Trump has chosen for "steel slats" or "concrete." He doesn't intendance what Democrats call the physical barrier. To Trump, it's all a wall.

For Democrats, that's the trouble.

When Trump talks about physical barriers, he'southward talking about a lot more than but the material that barrier is made of. Democrats are refusing to give Trump the political win.

"It'due south a political gimmick, and we shouldn't justify it," said Rep. Peters. "The wall is more of a symbol instead of a structure. It is a symbol of racism. The bulletin is still a racist dog whistle. It's non a wall."

Trump's example for a edge wall isn't based in existent information. Instead, he likes to remind people that he fabricated a campaign promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it in 2016 and won.

Even when Trump tried to make a humanitarian appeal — citing the record number of children coming to the border and proverb his plan includes an "urgent asking for humanitarian aid and medical support" — the wall he promised on the campaign trail was still the centerpiece of his proposal.

As Vocalism's Dara Lind has written, a edge wall isn't a solution to the "humanitarian crisis" Trump is talking about. She writes:

The point of walls is to forbid people from crossing into the US undetected. That's not what most of the families and children who are crossing are doing. They're turning themselves in to the nearest border amanuensis they run across on the US side.

"There'southward a national obsession with 'securing the border' and that has but focused on barriers and looking for ways to pushing migrants out to more treacherous and deadly crossings," said Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), who represents the El Paso border region. "We have to look at this challenge in a broader way. We have to look at the root cause of migration."

Trump has lied about immigration too much for Democrats to trust him

People assemble at Friendship Park along the US-Mexico border fence while standing on the Mexican side of the fence in Tijuana's embankment district on March 9, 2018.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Trump lies about border security a lot. He paints a tearing film of murderers and criminals pouring over the nation'south border. He has chosen the state of affairs on the southern border a "crisis" and implemented policy that has express refugees, accelerated the deportation of nonviolent undocumented migrants, fabricated it harder to seek asylum, and left more than i,000 migrant children separated from their parents.

Trump has nixed every bipartisan immigration proposal for not existence hardline enough. His solutions have been unable to pass Congress, fifty-fifty with only Republican support.

The reality on the edge is very different, as Voice has written:

• Reverse to Trump'southward depiction, states with more unauthorized immigrants have slightly less violent criminal offence, not more than. A similar methodology also suggests unauthorized immigration is associated with pregnant reductions in irenic offense.
• A study looking at metro areas and overall immigration, both legal and illegal, likewise plant that immigration is associated with lower crime.
• Immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans, and unauthorized immigrants commit fierce crimes at a lower rate than the native population.
• Trump's claim that immigration is a strain on the economy that would brand Americans poorer is contrary to what economists have shown — immigration seems to heighten wages for native-built-in workers while lowering pay for other immigrants.
• While Trump'due south administration keeps talking about the increment in border crossings between 2017 and 2018, in a historical context, border crossings have actually substantially decreased since the early 2000s.

These untruths are why Democrats don't trust Trump on "the wall." They refuse to give him political points as a advantage for shutting downwards the government — specially when the policy is based in lies.

"Trump has poisoned a policy fence that Democrats have engaged with in the past," Grijalva said.

Ella Nilsen contributed to this written report.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/15/18177566/democrats-trump-wall-shutdown

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