Deal allows less money than Trump wanted for wall
Print Edition
US lawmakers have announced an agreement in principle to avoid another government shutdown, with nearly US$1.4 billion for the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.
That amount is far less than US President Donald Trump had demanded.
But if accepted, the deal would avert another chaotic standoff in which Trump had threatened to cut department budgets.
Senior congressional aides said the agreement included US$1.375 billion in funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border — a key campaign promise of Trump, who had demanded US$5.7 billion for his pet project.
The figure would fund about 89 kilometers, all to be located in the Rio Grande Valley area of south Texas.
The deal still faces White House approval.
The news was announced just as Trump was about to climb the stage in the El Paso arena.
The US-Mexico border controversy is the opening battle of Trump’s 2020 re-election bid and his El Paso rally gave a taste of things to come.
Trump chose the setting as a historic crossing point where he says walls have successfully halted an out-of-control influx of Mexican criminals.
Trump said fencing through the city had dramatically reduced crime by separating it from the troubled Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, just across the border.
However, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said this narrative was “not factually correct.”
“The fence has helped with some criminal activities but the primary reason we are as safe as we are is because of our police force and our public safety people,” Margo said.
The comments were echoed by Democratic star Beto O’Rourke — a possible challenger in 2020 — at his own rally a short distance away.
A former congressman, who excited grassroots Democrats last November with an against-the-odds near upset of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, O’Rourke is from El Paso.
“Tonight, we will meet lies and hate with the truth and a positive, inclusive, ambitious vision for the future from the US-Mexico border,” he said.
Trump dismissed O’Rourke as “a young man who’s got very little going for himself except he’s got a great first name.”
Making fun of what he said was O’Rourke’s much smaller crowd, Trump said: “That may be the end of his presidential bid.”
The wall debate has deepened the already gaping rift between left and right since Trump’s election.
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