REPLUBLICANS VS DEMOCRATS RE THE MEXICO BORDER WAR
Top Republicans oppose border 'emergency' as shutdown drags on
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Republican lawmaker Steve Scalise (C), seen here at a recent White House briefing with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, said on January 13, 2019 that he does not want to see Trump invoke an emergency to secure funds for a wall
Washington
(AFP) - Top Republican lawmakers on Sunday warned against Donald Trump
declaring a national emergency to secure funds for a border wall,
signaling doubts within the president's party as a government shutdown
was set to enter a fourth workweek.
Senator
Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, told CNN that
he would "hate" to see Trump invoke emergency powers for a wall.
"If we do that, it's going to go to court and the wall won't get built," he said.
And
Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, told ABC, "We
don't want it to come down to a national emergency declaration," even
if he believes Trump has the authority to do so.
Related Video: Could Trump Legally Declare National Emergency for Wall?
Trump
only recently backed away from talk of an emergency declaration, after
pressing it for days as a way out of the continuing budget standoff.
Democrats
have strongly opposed the idea. The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin,
said Sunday on ABC that "if this president is going to turn to national
emergencies every time he disagrees with Congress, I'm against it."
He urged Trump to "put an end to the shutdown and put everything on the table."
As
the partisan battle drags on, the effects of the partial shutdown have
become steadily clearer, and new polls show growing public
dissatisfaction. On Sunday, Trump acknowledged, at least indirectly, the
mounting costs of the shutdown.
- Republicans blamed -
"The
damage done to our Country from a badly broken Border - Drugs, Crime
and so much that is bad - is far greater than a Shutdown, which the Dems
can easily fix as soon as they come back to Washington!" he said.
Many
lawmakers spent the weekend in their home states -- often hearing
constituents' complaints about the shutdown -- but will return to
Washington on Monday.
Trump
has tried various angles to pressure Democratic negotiators, but they
have not visibly budged from an offer to support some border security
spending -- the figure of $1.3 billion has been floated -- but not the
$5.7 billion he wants for a wall.
Two new polls indicate the Democrats may be winning the battle for public support.
The
Washington Post/ABC News survey found that far more Americans blame
Trump and the Republicans for the shutdown than blame the Democrats --
by 53 percent to 29 percent.
Meantime,
a separate poll by CNN showed Trump's disapproval rating among
Americans had climbed by five points -- to 57 percent -- in just a
month, with just 37 percent approving.
But
the Post poll also found a hardening of Republican support for a wall,
with 70 percent now saying they strongly support the wall, up from 58
percent a year earlier.
The president has closely tied his fate to his steadfast conservative base.
- Fears of overreach -
Many
Republicans doubt that the invocation of a national emergency would
help their cause -- likely influencing Trump's decision Friday to say he
was holding off in order to give Democrats more time to strike a deal.
"I want to give them the chance to see if they can act responsibly," he told Fox in an interview late Saturday.
Trump has acknowledged that an emergency declaration would likely trigger a legal battle ending in the Supreme Court.
Opponents say such a unilateral presidential move would be constitutional overreach and set a dangerous precedent.
The
partial shutdown became the longest on record at midnight Friday, when
it overtook a 21-day stretch in 1995-1996 under president Bill Clinton.
- Wall against 'crime' -
The
impasse has paralyzed Washington -- its impact felt increasingly around
the country -- with the president refusing to sign off on budgets for
swaths of government departments unrelated to the dispute.
As
a result, 800,000 federal employees -- including FBI agents, air
traffic controllers and museum staff -- received no paychecks on Friday.
Both
Democrats and Republicans agree that the US-Mexican border presents
challenges, but Trump has turned his single-minded push for more walls
into a crusade.
He
tweeted Sunday that "The building of the Wall on the Southern Border
will bring down the crime rate throughout the entire Country!"
Some studies show that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States.
Only
in recent days has Trump begun describing the problem as
"humanitarian," referring in a tweet Saturday to "a massive Humanitarian
Crisis at our Southern Border."
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