Free Republic

President Trump said Monday that Democrats are now in control of whether there will be a government shutdown at the end of the week, saying their last-minute demands to detain fewer illegal immigrants are poisoning negotiations. The president also announced his administration had begun building a “big, big” new section of border wall, as he pressed Congress for more money to keep construction going, and to sustain the ability of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants. Standing with sheriffs at the White House, Mr. Trump read out a list of crimes committed by illegal immigrants detained in...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed President Trump recently for arguing there’s a national crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. “I just don’t think you should call national emergencies unless there truly is a national emergency. There’s no national emergency at our border,” she said in a clip from Showtimes’ “The Circus” released Friday. Mrs. Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said Mr. Trump is “frustrated” with the process because Republicans aren’t entirely behind him.

The White House said Sunday it cannot rule out another government shutdown as it gets mixed signals from Democrats and Republicans racing a Friday deadline to fund President Trump’s border-wall demands and keep federal operations humming. White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said proposed funding is all over the map and that Democrats’ are pushing to cap the number of detainee beds for people who cross into the U.S. illegally, causing talks to stall. “The government shutdown is still on the table. We do not want it to come to that, but that option is still open to the...

President Donald Trump met with a key Republican negotiator Thursday, Feb. 7, to lay out his demands for a border deal, as lawmakers sought an agreement to stave off another government shutdown. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told reporters after meeting with Trump that he believes the president will support a deal bipartisan congressional negotiators produce - as long as it meets his parameters. Lawmakers face a Feb. 15 deadline when large portions of the government will shut back down absent a deal. Shelby declined to detail Trump's requirements, and he did not say whether the president had agreed...

Six people have been arrested after federal agents seized more than 1.7 tons of drugs stashed inside audio speakers that were being shipped from Long Beach to Australia. The shipment included 3,810 pounds of methamphetamine, along with 56 pounds of cocaine and 11.5 pounds of heroin, federal authorities said. Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized three shipping containers containing the drugs on Jan. 11 at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport.

In an effort to prevent another lapse in federal funding, U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall on Thursday introduced three proposals aimed at addressing needs in remote areas of the southern border region and bolstering economic development in border communities. One bill would provide Border Patrol agents with increased medical training and EMT certification, as well as deliver enhanced language interpretation services and voice access to physicians or health care providers at all Customs and Border Protection remote stations and southern land-based ports of entry. A second proposal would increase commercial hours of operation at some of the...

Nearly 4,000 additional U.S. troops will be deployed to the southern border to assist Customs and Border Protection, the Pentagon announced Sunday. CNN reported that 3,750 troops will head to the border for 90 days to aid in placing razor wire along the border, as well as with mobile surveillance operations. The deployment will bring the number of active-duty forces in the area to roughly 4,350. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said last week that the department would send "several thousand" additional troops to the border, but declined to be more specific. The Hill has reached out to the Pentagon...

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow congressional freshmen on Friday urged negotiators trying to hammer out a border-security compromise and avoid another government shutdown to cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security, claiming the agency has “promulgated an agenda driven by hate—not strategy.” Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., penned a letter to lawmakers on the bicameral, bipartisan conference committee tasked with drafting new legislation to address border-security and DHS funding. “We write to you today seeking your solidarity and support to enter in to the DHS conference committee process with...

Say what? Just a couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump went on national television to make an offer to trade a three-year extension of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programs for $5.7 billion in border-wall funding. In an interview with the Daily Caller published today, Trump reversed course and said no concessions would be made on DACA until the Supreme Court took up the challenges to its constitutionality: President Donald Trump cast doubt on speculation that he may be willing to offer up concessions on the DACA program in exchange for border...

Democrats‘ new border security proposal would cut the number of detention beds available to hold illegal immigrants for deportation, effectively forcing Homeland Security to release more people into communities. House Democrats detailed the plan — sans a price tag — on Wednesday, just after finishing the first round of negotiations with Republicans to try to avoid another government shutdown in two weeks. Among their ideas are more investigators to investigate drug-smuggling, and more ankle-monitoring and counseling for illegal immigrants, but no money for President Trump’s border wall. And the Democrats said they will cut the number of detention beds available...

The government shutdown is over -- for now -- but the political ramifications are still being sorted out. The media has been chortling that Donald Trump "caved," and he may well have lost this battle with congressional Democrats. Their "victory," such as it is, is to notify American voters that they are so opposed to a wall and a secure border that they were willing to keep the government shut down for four weeks to ensure it doesn't happen. Trump has thus exposed the Pelosi-Schumer Democrats as being hopelessly soft on illegal immigration. Some Democrats are starting to wonder whether...

America is full of visible and invisible walls. In the first half of the last century, our politics had been dedicated to tearing down the walls between classes, races and genders. And then in the second half of the century, radicals terrified of what that meant for their plans, began building them up again while adding new divisions until every city, workplace and even family is divided by many invisible walls. Walls represent divisions. Whether you support or oppose a particular wall depends on whether you believe a division is legally, morally or philosophically legitimate. The walls that the radicals...

According to the Democrats and the mainstream media, Americans shouldn’t be concerned about terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Ever since President Donald Trump began highlighting the connection between weak border security and terrorist infiltration, his political opponents have done everything to downplay the real consequences of our broken immigration system. Rising Democratic superstar Beto O’Rourke, for example, slammed the president’s “rhetoric” on illegal immigration last year, arguing that there is simply no connection between terrorism and the southern border. "[Z]ero, precisely zero, terrorists, terrorist groups, or terror plots have ever been connected with the U.S.-Mexico border to do harm to...

President Trump on Friday sought to defend his decision earlier that day to end the ongoing partial government shutdown without getting funding for his long-desired border wall. “I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border Wall. This was in no way a concession," Trump tweeted. "It was taking care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the Shutdown with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!” Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border...

01.25.19 McConnell Supports President’s Plan to Re-open the Government ‘I was glad to see today the president’s announcement that he and Democrats have reached an agreement that will immediately re-open the government, while providing the room to negotiate a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Further, negotiations on DHS will be prioritized over consideration of any other funding bills. And with cooperation, we can pass legislation opening the government and send the DHS appropriations bill to a conference with the House today.’ WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the following remarks on the...

If it was the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that black and white would come together in friendship and peace to do justice, his acolytes in today's Democratic Party appear to have missed that part of his message. Here is Hakeem Jeffries, fourth-ranked Democrat in Nancy Pelosi's House, speaking Monday, on the holiday set aside to honor King: "We have a hater in the White House. The birther in chief. The grand wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. ... While Jim Crow may be dead, he's still got some nieces and nephews that are alive and well." At the...

I couldn't care less about the State of the Union address, and I'm hardly panicking about the government shutdown, but I care a great deal that Democrats and the liberal media continue to treat President Trump like a dog, with utter impunity. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disinvited Trump to deliver the address in the Capitol, falsely citing security concerns when everyone knows she was just joyfully sticking her thumb in his eye and trying to humiliate him. Trump has decided to postpone the speech until the partial shutdown is resolved, presumably because he believes it's important that it be...

Senate Democrats blocked a White House backed-plan to end the 34-day partial shutdown, turning it down in a 51-47 vote on Thursday. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) joined with Republicans to advance the measure, but it fell short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a filibuster. In an unexpected development, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) voted against Trump's plan. Lee is considered a fiscal hawk and Cotton is one of the Senate’s most conservative members on immigration. The Senate is expected to hold a second vote Thursday on a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the quarter...

Washington (CNN)The White House is preparing a draft proclamation for President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency along the southern border and has identified more than $7 billion in potential funds for his signature border wall should he go that route, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN. Trump has not ruled out using his authority to declare a national emergency and direct the Defense Department to construct a border wall as Congress and the White House fight over a deal to end the government shutdown.

Democrats call anyone who disagrees with their opinion of climate change a "denier." They are trying to evoke the "Holocaust denier" label. That's shameful. But Democrats are actually the ones living in deep dysfunctional denial. They are in denial of what anyone can see -- assuming you're not blind, deaf or really dumb. It's time to turn the tables, throw it right back in their faces. Democrats are "border crisis deniers." We are facing a dozen crises at our border. They are impossible to miss: We are facing an illegal immigration crisis. Our nation is being overrun. Democrats can't see...