https://www.rt.com/usa/422133-trump-daca-veto-border/
Trump says considering veto over DACA issue, lack of full border wall funding
Published time: 23 Mar, 2018 12:58 Edited time: 23 Mar, 2018 13:35
Get short URL
U.S. police officers are seen on top of a truck parked in front of a prototype of U.S. President Donald Trump's border wall, on the U.S. side of the current border fence, in Tijuana, Mexico. © Jorge Duenes / Reuters
Trump tweeted Friday morning that he is considering blocking the bill because 800,000 ‘Dreamer’ immigrants aren’t even mentioned in the legislation.
A government shutdown was narrowly avoided as the bill passed the Senate and the House of Representatives in a whirlwind process in the early hours of Friday morning. It was widely anticipated that the president would sign the bill to avoid another government closure with funds due to run out today.
“DACA was abandoned by the Democrats. Very unfair to them! Would have been tied to desperately needed Wall,” the president added.
Trump’s threat comes after the White House reassured lawmakers that the president would sign off on the 2,300 page omnibus spending bill. Capitol Hill is unprepared for the threat as lawmakers were leaving Washington as Congress heads into a two-week recess.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/pol...got-just-16b-congress-resists-massive-project
Unhappy today over lack of border wall funds, Trump threatens veto and government shutdown
Filed under Politics at 27 min ago
Share
Written by
Todd J. Gillman, Washington Bureau Chief
Connect with Todd J. Gillman
Don't miss a story. Like us on Facebook. Like Dallas News' Facebook Page
Updated at 8:10 a.m. Friday with Trump's veto threat
WASHINGTON - With Congress rejecting his $25 billion demand for a massive border wall, President Donald Trump agreed to a far more modest $1.6 billion and lauded the deal on Thursday.
On Friday morning, he changed his mind, threatening to veto a massive spending bill and raising the specter of a prolonged government shutdown over the lack of wall funding.
The $1.3 trillion spending deal may be the last moment of leverage for Trump to fund the project before the 2018 midterm elections. But he and aides had already bargained that away with congressional leaders in recent days and weeks.
Reneging on the spending deal would be extraordinary -- as would triggering a shutdown. The House passed the plan Thursday afternoon and the Senate followed after midnight, with little time to spare before a shutdown deadline at midnight Friday. With lawmakers already scattered to their home states, untangling the mess if Trump refuses to sign the package would take days.
"I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded," Trump tweeted Friday morning.
The 16-day shutdown in fall 2013 cost the national economy more than $1 billion a day. The stock market is already reeling from a looming trade war with China announced Thursday.
There is no indication that Trump used the spending deal to push for a resolution to the DACA crisis, despite the 11th hour injection of that issue.
In separate negotiations in recent months, he demanded $25 billion in wall funding in exchange for a sweeping overhaul of immigration policy and protection for young immigrants facing potential deportation, but the proposal gained little traction.
Top aides insisted on Thursday that Trump was satisfied with the wall funding in the budget deal and had not abandoned his vision of a "big beautiful wall," even if the political climate in Washington doesn't allow him to secure it quite yet.
"We got 110 miles. We need 10 times that," said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney. "The bottom line is, if Congress will appropriate the money, we will build the wall today."
The funding is tucked into the $1.3 trillion deal to keep the government open for the next six months. Of the 110 miles of barrier authorized, only about 33 miles would go in areas that don't already have some sort of fence.
Trump's second thoughts about the deal came after a news cycle filled with commentary about a major setback on a signature campaign promise, with the most caustic spin that he was outright rolled by Democrats.
The 2,232-page bill cleared the House on Thursday ahead of a midnight Friday deadline to keep the government running through Sept. 30. The language explicitly limits wall construction to
"operationally effective designs" deployed by March 2017.
That would rule out the prototypes Trump inspected in San Diego last week, though Mulvaney insisted otherwise. He offered no explanation for the discrepancy.
Trump vowed throughout his campaign to build a wall and to make Mexico pay for it. He has yet to propose any mechanism by which to wrest the payment from Mexico's government or its citizens, and the funding in the latest spending plan would come from ordinary federal revenue -- in other words, U.S. taxpayers.
Thursday night, Sen. Ted Cruz cited a lack of wall funding as one reason he'll vote against the $1.3 billion omnibus spending deal. "It fails to provide sufficient funds to properly secure our border, let alone build the wall that is necessary," he said in a statement.
Tied to DACA
In late January, Trump dangled protection for 1.8 million young immigrants in exchange for $25 billion for border wall construction. That plan also would have included major curbs on legal immigration, and a shift from family-based visas and a lottery system to one that favors highly skilled immigrants.
The young immigrants face deportation because last fall, Trump scrapped the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which shielded foreign-born U.S. residents who'd been brought into the country illegally as children.
Democrats rejected the proposal, which they viewed as draconian. They also rejected a fallback offer tying three years of DACA protection to three years of wall funding.
Mulvaney insisted that Democrats view DACA "as a political weapon....They want to use the permit holders as political pawns in their game." Democrats accuse Trump of manufacturing the crisis by scrapping DACA, then demanding concessions in exchange for protecting victims of his own actions.
Despite the setback on the president's signature campaign promise, aides took heart in the fact that wall foes were unhappy the spending plan includes any funds for the project.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus opposes the deal on grounds that "it would fund Trump's border wall and mass deportation force" without protecting DACA recipients, often called "Dreamers."
Their plight remains uncertain. Federal courts have temporarily kept protections in place since the March 5 deadline set by Trump passed.
Trump reportedly balked at the low level of wall funding in the $1.3 trillion deal. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to assure him that was the best he could get for now.
The spending deal required support from 60 senators under Senate rules. Republicans control 51 seats. That, said Mulvaney, meant "there was no chance of everything that we wanted passing."
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the deputy Senate majority leader and one of many Republicans openly skeptical of Trump's expansive border wall vision, said funding for surveillance technology and personnel "is money well spent."
The spending deal includes a ban on construction in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Hidalgo County - a win for environmentalists who have warned that roads and fences would destroy an important ecosystem.
"It is a vulnerability," Cornyn said, adding that he has conferred with Border Patrol and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials as they seek ways to beef up security while protecting the refuge. "My hope is that it would be more technology driven and less physical infrastructure, because I hate to see us unnecessarily damage such a magnet for tourism and economic activity there along the border."
House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican who has enjoyed close relations with Trump and his team, lauded the bill.
"We must continue to provide the resources to best protect the American people from the constantly-changing landscape at home and abroad," he said in a statement. "This bill does just that. It begins construction of the president's border wall, including funds for physical barriers along the Southwest border, technology, and levee wall in my home state of Texas."
-- $251 million for 14 miles of secondary fence in San Diego, where primary fencing already exists
-- $445 million for 25 miles of levee fence in the Rio Grande Valley
-- $196 million for 8 miles of pedestrian fence in the Rio Grande Valley
-- $445 million for 63 miles of replacement fence
-- $196 million for border technology
-- $38 million for wall planning and design
Not disappointed
Marc Short, the White House liaison to Congress, said the government wouldn't have been able to spend any more than that in the next six months anyway, echoing Mulvaney's spin that the deal is not a disappointment.
"We asked for 28 miles of levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley. We got 25," Mulvaney said. "We asked for 32 miles of pedestrian wall in the Rio Grande Valley. We only got 8 there. We asked for 14 miles in San Diego, OK? And we got all 14 miles. That includes building the new type of wall that the president actually visited last year."
He apparently was referring to Trump's trip to San Diego on March 13 to inspect prototypes, including a steel bollard fence with a rounded concrete top designed to deter grappling hooks.
Mulvaney touted the fact that the bill provides more than the White House had sought for technology, roads, air and marine assets, vehicles, weapons, and for hiring and retaining Border Patrol and immigration and customs officers.
That reflects a consensus in Congress that technology and personnel are a better investment for beefing up border security than a massive barrier.
"We ended up asking for 74 miles worth of wall, we get 110. Not exactly what we wanted, where we want it. Congress chose to ignore some of the suggestions that CBP [Customs and Border Protection] made on where the best kind of wall should go," Mulvaney said.
Washington correspondent Tom Benning contributed to this report.
Trump says considering veto over DACA issue, lack of full border wall funding
Published time: 23 Mar, 2018 12:58 Edited time: 23 Mar, 2018 13:35
Get short URL
U.S. police officers are seen on top of a truck parked in front of a prototype of U.S. President Donald Trump's border wall, on the U.S. side of the current border fence, in Tijuana, Mexico. © Jorge Duenes / Reuters
- 121
Trump tweeted Friday morning that he is considering blocking the bill because 800,000 ‘Dreamer’ immigrants aren’t even mentioned in the legislation.
A government shutdown was narrowly avoided as the bill passed the Senate and the House of Representatives in a whirlwind process in the early hours of Friday morning. It was widely anticipated that the president would sign the bill to avoid another government closure with funds due to run out today.
“DACA was abandoned by the Democrats. Very unfair to them! Would have been tied to desperately needed Wall,” the president added.
Trump’s threat comes after the White House reassured lawmakers that the president would sign off on the 2,300 page omnibus spending bill. Capitol Hill is unprepared for the threat as lawmakers were leaving Washington as Congress heads into a two-week recess.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/pol...got-just-16b-congress-resists-massive-project
Unhappy today over lack of border wall funds, Trump threatens veto and government shutdown
Filed under Politics at 27 min ago
Share
Written by
Todd J. Gillman, Washington Bureau Chief
Connect with Todd J. Gillman
Don't miss a story. Like us on Facebook. Like Dallas News' Facebook Page
Updated at 8:10 a.m. Friday with Trump's veto threat
WASHINGTON - With Congress rejecting his $25 billion demand for a massive border wall, President Donald Trump agreed to a far more modest $1.6 billion and lauded the deal on Thursday.
On Friday morning, he changed his mind, threatening to veto a massive spending bill and raising the specter of a prolonged government shutdown over the lack of wall funding.
The $1.3 trillion spending deal may be the last moment of leverage for Trump to fund the project before the 2018 midterm elections. But he and aides had already bargained that away with congressional leaders in recent days and weeks.
Reneging on the spending deal would be extraordinary -- as would triggering a shutdown. The House passed the plan Thursday afternoon and the Senate followed after midnight, with little time to spare before a shutdown deadline at midnight Friday. With lawmakers already scattered to their home states, untangling the mess if Trump refuses to sign the package would take days.
"I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded," Trump tweeted Friday morning.
The 16-day shutdown in fall 2013 cost the national economy more than $1 billion a day. The stock market is already reeling from a looming trade war with China announced Thursday.
There is no indication that Trump used the spending deal to push for a resolution to the DACA crisis, despite the 11th hour injection of that issue.
In separate negotiations in recent months, he demanded $25 billion in wall funding in exchange for a sweeping overhaul of immigration policy and protection for young immigrants facing potential deportation, but the proposal gained little traction.
Top aides insisted on Thursday that Trump was satisfied with the wall funding in the budget deal and had not abandoned his vision of a "big beautiful wall," even if the political climate in Washington doesn't allow him to secure it quite yet.
"We got 110 miles. We need 10 times that," said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney. "The bottom line is, if Congress will appropriate the money, we will build the wall today."
The funding is tucked into the $1.3 trillion deal to keep the government open for the next six months. Of the 110 miles of barrier authorized, only about 33 miles would go in areas that don't already have some sort of fence.
Trump's second thoughts about the deal came after a news cycle filled with commentary about a major setback on a signature campaign promise, with the most caustic spin that he was outright rolled by Democrats.
The 2,232-page bill cleared the House on Thursday ahead of a midnight Friday deadline to keep the government running through Sept. 30. The language explicitly limits wall construction to
"operationally effective designs" deployed by March 2017.
That would rule out the prototypes Trump inspected in San Diego last week, though Mulvaney insisted otherwise. He offered no explanation for the discrepancy.
Trump vowed throughout his campaign to build a wall and to make Mexico pay for it. He has yet to propose any mechanism by which to wrest the payment from Mexico's government or its citizens, and the funding in the latest spending plan would come from ordinary federal revenue -- in other words, U.S. taxpayers.
Thursday night, Sen. Ted Cruz cited a lack of wall funding as one reason he'll vote against the $1.3 billion omnibus spending deal. "It fails to provide sufficient funds to properly secure our border, let alone build the wall that is necessary," he said in a statement.
Tied to DACA
In late January, Trump dangled protection for 1.8 million young immigrants in exchange for $25 billion for border wall construction. That plan also would have included major curbs on legal immigration, and a shift from family-based visas and a lottery system to one that favors highly skilled immigrants.
The young immigrants face deportation because last fall, Trump scrapped the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which shielded foreign-born U.S. residents who'd been brought into the country illegally as children.
Democrats rejected the proposal, which they viewed as draconian. They also rejected a fallback offer tying three years of DACA protection to three years of wall funding.
Mulvaney insisted that Democrats view DACA "as a political weapon....They want to use the permit holders as political pawns in their game." Democrats accuse Trump of manufacturing the crisis by scrapping DACA, then demanding concessions in exchange for protecting victims of his own actions.
Despite the setback on the president's signature campaign promise, aides took heart in the fact that wall foes were unhappy the spending plan includes any funds for the project.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus opposes the deal on grounds that "it would fund Trump's border wall and mass deportation force" without protecting DACA recipients, often called "Dreamers."
Their plight remains uncertain. Federal courts have temporarily kept protections in place since the March 5 deadline set by Trump passed.
Trump reportedly balked at the low level of wall funding in the $1.3 trillion deal. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to assure him that was the best he could get for now.
The spending deal required support from 60 senators under Senate rules. Republicans control 51 seats. That, said Mulvaney, meant "there was no chance of everything that we wanted passing."
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the deputy Senate majority leader and one of many Republicans openly skeptical of Trump's expansive border wall vision, said funding for surveillance technology and personnel "is money well spent."
The spending deal includes a ban on construction in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Hidalgo County - a win for environmentalists who have warned that roads and fences would destroy an important ecosystem.
"It is a vulnerability," Cornyn said, adding that he has conferred with Border Patrol and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials as they seek ways to beef up security while protecting the refuge. "My hope is that it would be more technology driven and less physical infrastructure, because I hate to see us unnecessarily damage such a magnet for tourism and economic activity there along the border."
House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican who has enjoyed close relations with Trump and his team, lauded the bill.
"We must continue to provide the resources to best protect the American people from the constantly-changing landscape at home and abroad," he said in a statement. "This bill does just that. It begins construction of the president's border wall, including funds for physical barriers along the Southwest border, technology, and levee wall in my home state of Texas."
-
President Donald Trump signs trade sanctions against China on March 22, 2018, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House
(MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) -
-- $251 million for 14 miles of secondary fence in San Diego, where primary fencing already exists
-- $445 million for 25 miles of levee fence in the Rio Grande Valley
-- $196 million for 8 miles of pedestrian fence in the Rio Grande Valley
-- $445 million for 63 miles of replacement fence
-- $196 million for border technology
-- $38 million for wall planning and design
Not disappointed
Marc Short, the White House liaison to Congress, said the government wouldn't have been able to spend any more than that in the next six months anyway, echoing Mulvaney's spin that the deal is not a disappointment.
"We asked for 28 miles of levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley. We got 25," Mulvaney said. "We asked for 32 miles of pedestrian wall in the Rio Grande Valley. We only got 8 there. We asked for 14 miles in San Diego, OK? And we got all 14 miles. That includes building the new type of wall that the president actually visited last year."
He apparently was referring to Trump's trip to San Diego on March 13 to inspect prototypes, including a steel bollard fence with a rounded concrete top designed to deter grappling hooks.
Mulvaney touted the fact that the bill provides more than the White House had sought for technology, roads, air and marine assets, vehicles, weapons, and for hiring and retaining Border Patrol and immigration and customs officers.
That reflects a consensus in Congress that technology and personnel are a better investment for beefing up border security than a massive barrier.
"We ended up asking for 74 miles worth of wall, we get 110. Not exactly what we wanted, where we want it. Congress chose to ignore some of the suggestions that CBP [Customs and Border Protection] made on where the best kind of wall should go," Mulvaney said.
Washington correspondent Tom Benning contributed to this report.
