US President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed opposition Democrats for the death of two immigrant children in US custody, comments set to heighten tensions as the second week of a government shutdown began over his demands for a border wall.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed opposition Democrats for the death of two immigrant children in US custody, comments set to heighten tensions as the second week of a government shutdown began over his demands for a border wall.
« Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. They can’t. If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try!, » Trump said on Twitter.
His comments came after the separate deaths of two Guatemalan children, aged seven and eight, who crossed the border illegally with relatives who were taken into custody by US Border Patrol.
The tweet hardened his tone after an earlier message on Twitter Saturday which said the next move in the eight-day budget standoff over border wall funding belonged to the Democrats.
« I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security, » Trump tweeted.
But members of Congress, most of them home for the holidays, continued to keep low profiles, and there were no evident signs of any imminent breakthrough.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Saturday was in Yuma, Arizona, on the second day of a trip to witness border operations firsthand after she last week said the US will take « extraordinary » protective measures to deal with a surge of immigrant children in custody.
