President Donald Trump has arrived in McAllen, Texas, to visit the border and speak with border patrol agents.
We will update this post throughout his visit.
Before Trump left for the border, he told reporters that he has “the absolute right to declare a national emergency” to fund the wall if Congress doesn’t approve funding.
The government has been shut down for 20 days. Due to this, Trump cancelled his trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum
Trump had a few people with him on his visit including DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
Right now, as of 2:37PM ET, Trump is participating in a roundtable with the border patrol agents. In front of the table are drugs, guns, and money that agents have seized on the border.
Cornyn addressed the items in front of them and said, “When people like Ted and I hear our colleagues in Washington say this is a manufactured crisis, we kind of wonder what planet they’ve been living on.”
Trump praised the officers:”Law enforcement and I.C.E and Border Patrol, incredible job you’re doing. The public loves you – not like – they love you. I just hope that none of you runs for president.”
He also said the wall is medieval, but so is the wheel: “They say a wall is medieval—well, so is a wheel,” Pres. Trump says at meeting near southern border. “A wheel is older than a wall. There are some things that work, you know what? A wheel works, and a wall works.”
He explained that when he said he would have Mexico pay for the wall, he didn’t mean the country would write America “a check for $20 billion or $10 billion.” He insisted that Mexico will pay “for the wall many, many times over” once Congress approves of the new trade deal between Canada, America, and Mexico.
Joining Trump at the table is Reggie Singh, the brother of Corporal Singh in California.
NBC News reported about a plan that could come to fruition if Trump declared a national emergency:
President Donald Trump has been briefed on a plan that would use the Army Corps of Engineers and a portion of $13.9 billion of Army Corps funding to build 315 miles of barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the briefing.The money was set aside to fund projects all over the country including storm-damaged areas of Puerto Rico through fiscal year 2020, but the checks have not been written yet and, under an emergency declaration, the president could take the money from these civil works projects and use it to build the border wall, said officials familiar with the briefing and two congressional sources.The plan could be implemented if Trump declares a national emergency in order to build the wall and would use more money and build more miles than the administration has requested from Congress. The president had requested $5.7 billion for a wall stretching 234 miles.Under the proposal, the officials said, Trump could dip into the $2.4 billion allocated to projects in California, including flood prevention and protection projects along the Yuba River Basin and the Folsom Dam, as well as the $2.5 billion set aside for reconstruction projects in Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from Hurricane Maria.
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