Border Security Debate Causes Longest Government Shutdown in U.S. History
By Delaney Moore
During Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, he promised his supporters that, if he won the election, he would “improve” border security by building a wall separating the U.S. and Mexico. Countless times he insisted that Mexico would foot the bill for the wall, not the U.S. Flash forward to January 2019; Mexico is not paying for the wall and the U.S. government is experiencing the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Beginning on December 22, 2018, the U.S. government has been partially shutdown due to Congress refusing to pass a spending bill that would allocate $5.7 billion to build Trump’s proposed wall. Approximately 800,000 federal government employees have been impacted by the shutdown and are not receiving paychecks. These agencies include, but are not limited to, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Secret Service agents, as well as numerous national parks across the nation.
Although Democrats, as well as Republicans, have proposed solutions that would end the government shutdown, Trump refused to comply until he received funding to build the proposed wall. On January 9, 2019, Trump met with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to discuss the shutdown and wall. After Pelosi informed Trump she would not support the construction of the wall, Trump stated, “Then we have nothing to discuss” and immediately left the meeting. In another interview Trump stated, “We won’t be opening until it’s solved.”
In a surprise turn of events, Trump issued a statement on January 25, 2019, stating that Congress had reached a deal that would temporarily reopen the government for nearly three weeks to allow Congress to further negotiate border security and funding. The deal, however, did not include funding for a wall.
It is unclear whether Congress and the President will reach a deal by February 15, the next date the government is expected to run out of money and shut down again. While Trump has declared countless times that the wall is a non-negotiable matter he isn’t willing to concede on, his actions on January 25 signal otherwise and offer a glimmer of hope that the wall may in fact never be built. However, if Congress and the President are unable to reach an agreement by February 15, he may exercise his executive authority and declare a national emergency to force the appropriation of funds to border security, and potentially the construction of a wall.
If Trump is successful in building the wall, it is likely U.S. and Mexico foreign relations will suffer greatly and the impact it will have on immigration is still unclear. In addition, it will signal to other nations that the U.S. is adopting a somewhat isolationist international position. Regardless of whether a deal is reached before February 15 or not, it will be interesting to see whether Trump will in fact get his wall and, if so, the impact it will have on international politics.
References
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https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/09/politics/chuck-schumer-nancy-pelosi-trump/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/13/us/government-shutdown-impact.html
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