“I would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!” – this is the message from the US president that hit Twitter today.
While threatening a government shutdown, Trump made a reference to his administration’s proposed merit-based immigration system, which would assign points to potential migrants on factors like age, education, fluency in English, willingness to invest capital in the US, etc.
READ MORE: WATCH: Protest Against Trump's Immigration Policies Held in Washington, DC
Earlier in the day, he tweeted about the consequences of people crossing the US border illegally, alleging that many use children “for their own sinister purposes.”
Last week, an immigration bill supported by conservative Republicans failed to pass the House of Representatives.Trump’s draft bill included $25 billion for the wall along the US’ southern border with Mexico, a path to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, undocumented migrants brought to the US illegally as kids, an end to the diversity visa lottery, as well as what Trump called “catch and release” – the detention of undocumented migrants.
Trump’s tweets came shortly after the government said that over 1,800 children separated at the US-Mexico border had been reunited with their families. The current administration’s zero tolerance policy, which envisaged the prosecution of any individual caught crossing the southern border illegally, was suspended by POTUS after a massive backlash over the separation of some 2,000 children from their families at the border.
The government has already shut down twice this year – first over a failed deal for the Dreamers and the second – over a funding bill.