The longer this goes on the more it has become apparent that Donald Trump, the ‘deal maker’ isn’t a good deal maker at ALL….
Nancy Pelosi has made it plain that Trump isn’t gonna get his $5 Billion for his idea of a ‘symbolic’ wall…..
….Two years into his term, Trump hasn’t built even one mile of new barrier on the 1,954-mile border with Mexico. Before the shutdown, Congress had appropriated funds for a few dozen miles of new barriers, but construction is only about to begin. While some of the $5.7 billion is also earmarked for replacement barriers or secondary barriers behind existing ones, Trump promised his supporters a lot more than replacement barriers.
What a price we are paying for Trump’s effort to get just one-tenth of the new barriers that he promised. The shutdown that Trump said he would be “proud” to own has:
- partially stopped government operations for a record period of time (and still counting)
- put 800,000 federal employees in financial stress and jeopardy
- damaged the American economy
- hurt consumer confidence
- closed national parks and monuments
- interfered with the FBI’s ability to investigate crimes such as terrorism and street gang violence
- forced the cash-strapped federal courts to put some civil cases on hold
- forced airports to close terminals or security checkpoints because many unpaid TSA employees are not reporting for work, which raises safety concerns
The shutdown has also internationally embarrassed the United States….
Democrats aren’t the only ones who wish President Donald Trump weren’t obsessed with building a border wall.
Even hard-line conservative immigration activists are frustrated with Trump’s relentless focus on a border wall — and are pushing him to embrace what they call more effective enforcement policies as part of any deal with Congress.
They are working with a half-dozen Republican members of Congress to write additional proposals they hope the White House will support. The suggestions include reducing the number of people sponsored for residency by family members, eliminating the visa lottery system and mandating nationwide E-Verify, an online system that allows businesses to cross-check work authorizations.
“We’re obviously a little frustrated because so much focus has been on barriers, walls and fences,” said Chris Chmielenski, director of content and activism at NumbersUSA, which supports curbing legal and illegal immigration.
When NumbersUSA outlined 10 steps to bolster immigration enforcement on its website, a border wall didn’t even make the list. The group, which has participated in discussions at the White House this week, sent an email blast to supporters urging them to contact the White House to include other measures.
Democrats who are dug in against funding a wall have said they might agree to some toughened enforcement measures that don’t involve concrete or steel structures, although they generally oppose E-Verify and reducing legal immigration.
Trump has offered the Democrat-controlled House a deal to temporarily protect hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the country as children in exchange for $5.7 billion for a border wall as a way to break an impasse with lawmakers that has kept the federal government shuttered for 33 days. But immigration groups that have stood with him in the past complain that he is giving too much for too little — a sign that his determination to fulfill an oft-repeated campaign pledge risks costing him even some hard-core supporters.
RJ Hauman, government relations director at Federation for American Immigration Reform, which also wants more enforcement, called Trump’s “build the wall” approach simplistic.
“President Trump was elected to put forth a multi-pronged approach to immigration, not just build a couple hundred miles of border barriers,” he said. “It’s disappointing to see what he’s doing now.”….
image…CNBC