Trump insisted that he would not relent on getting funding for the wall. “Nancy is calling the shots,” said the president, suggesting Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to become speaker of the US House of Representatives on January 3, should agree to the president’s plan.
READ MORE: US Government Shuts Down in Dispute Over Funding for Border Wall
Trump stressed during the surprise visit to the Al Asad Airbase in Iraq that the American public was demanding a border fence.
In January 2017, Trump signed Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements executive order that initiated the process of building a wall along the southern border with Mexico. The Trump administration has requested $5 billion for the project in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) budget, a request that Democrats and some Republicans opposed. As a result of the failure of the Senate to reach a deal the government has been partially shut down.
“We need safety for our country,” the US president added. “Even from this standpoint. We have terrorists coming in through the southern border.”
Recently, Mexican authorities said that more than 8,200 migrants from Central America reached Mexico, with around 7,400 of the migrants staying near the cities of Tijuana and Mexicali just south of California.
