Washington: President Donald Trump on Sunday showed signs of flexibility over building a wall along the US-Mexico border as he talked about a steel barrier instead of his previous demand for a concrete wall, to prevent illegal immigrants from entering America, a politically divisive issue which has forced a shutdown of the US government now entering its third week.
However, the president insisted that there needs to be some kind of a physical barrier to prevent hundreds and thousands of illegal immigrants from entering the country, which he said is a big drain on American economy.
Trump is seeking USD 5.6 billion in Congressional funding for a wall, which is being opposed by the Democrats. This stalemate has resulted in partial government shutdown.
"We have to build the wall or we have to build the barrier. The barrier or the wall can be of steel instead of concrete if that works better," he said before leaving for the presidential resort in Camp David for a meeting with his senior advisors on the border wall and various other aspects of his administration policies.
"I'm going to Camp David. We'll be discussing many topics: North Korea, the China trade deal...we'll obviously be discussing the wall," he said.
Trump said he intends to call the head of US Steel and a couple of other steel companies to have them come up with a plate or a design for the physical barrier along the US-Mexico border. "We'll use that as our barrier," he said.
"This is a very important battle to win from the standpoint of safety, number one, defining our country and who we are. Also from the standpoint of dollars. This wall will pay for itself many times through the course of the year," he said. Such a physical barrier he said is about stopping human traffickers, and stopping drugs. "So we have to have it," he asserted.
A day earlier, Vice President Mike Pence chaired a meeting of senior administration officials with Congressional staffers on the stalemate around the border wall which has resulted in a partial government shutdown for more than a fortnight now. Not much progress was made during the meeting, said acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
"I thought we had come in to talk about terms that we could agree on, places where we all agreed we should be spending more time, more attention, things we could do to improve our border security. And yet the opening line from one of the lead Democrat negotiators was that they were not there to talk about any agreement," he said.
Trump told reporters Sunday that Pence is likely to have another meeting with Congressional staffers and lawmakers.
"We have a meeting, Vice President Pence and a group will be going to a certain location, that you know where it is, and they'll be having another meeting. I don't expect to have anything happen at that meeting... but I think we're going to have some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday," he said.
The president reiterated that the partial government shutdown could continue for a longer time, if the Democrats do not give him the Congressional funding to construct a physical barrier along the Mexican border. He held the Democratic leadership House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responsible for this.
"Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and myself could solve this in 20 minutes if they want to. If they don't want to it's going to go on for a long time," he said.
Earlier, Trump said his predecessor Barack Obama had supported a physical barrier to keep out illegal immigrants from entering the country. "'We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked - Barack Obama, 2005'. 'I voted, when I was a Senator, to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in - Hillary Clinton, 2015'," Trump said quoting from Obama and Clinton's previous remarks.
"The only reason they do not want to build a Wall is that Walls Work! 99 pc of our illegal Border crossings will end, crime in our Country will go way down and we will save billions of dollars a year! A properly planned and constructed Wall will pay for itself many times a year!" he tweeted.
Responding to a question, Trump said he does not like government shutdown, but wants to protect the country. "I don't like doing this. I have no fun doing this. I was elected to protect our country. That's what I'm doing," he said.
Trump said other presidents didn't have the "guts" to build the wall "just like they didn't have the guts to move the embassy to Jerusalem in Israel".
Because of an open border, Trump said not only illegal aliens, but also criminals, and drug smugglers and human traffickers have been taking advantage of the current situation. "Human trafficking is a big business, is a big deal. Dealing in children is a big deal. Children are probably the most harmed by not having a wall or its equivalent," he said.
"Everybody's playing games but I can say this: I think the Democrats want to make a deal. I really do. A lot of work has been done on the wall...a lot of work has already been done. When they say 'build the wall,' I don't say that anymore, I say 'finish the wall'," he said.
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