Third Week Of US Government Shutdown: President Trump Sticks To Border Wall Demand, Castigates Democrats

In a nationally televised address from the Oval Office on Tuesday (8 January), President Trump castigated the Democrats for their steadfast refusal to fund the construction of a border wall and suggested they were abetting an ongoing “humanitarian crisis” at the southern border with Mexico.

“This is a humanitarian crisis. A crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul,” Trump said on the state of unauthorised immigration along the southern border with Mexico but did not declare the national emergency that he hinted at last week.

The address comes on the eighteenth day of an ongoing partial government shutdown amid an impasse between Trump and Democrats over his $5 billion demand for border wall funding. About 800,000 federal employees are about to miss another pay-check on Friday (11 January) if the deadlock is not resolved.

In what was viewed as a reconciliatory gesture vis-a-vis his veiled threat of invoking ‘national emergency’ last week, Trump stressed the importance of congressional action to resolve the partial federal shutdown.

“Last month 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States, a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs,” Trump said. “One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims, by far, of our broken system. This is the tragic reality of illegal immigration on our southern border. This is the cycle of human suffering that I am determined to end.”

Trump also claimed that unauthorised immigrants bring crime and drugs into the United States at devastating levels. Trump pointed out that US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrested 266,000 immigrants with criminal records over the past two years — including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 "violent killings."

Trump also criticised the opportunism of Democrats who previously stood for increased border security and accused them of abandoning their position only because of their mindless opposition to his presidency.

“They changed their mind only after I was elected president,” Trump said. "This is a choice between right and wrong, justice and injustice. This is about whether we fulfil our sacred duty to the American citizens we serve," he declared.

The speech was broadcast on multiple major networks, including NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, and Fox’s broadcast networks; and cable outlets such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC and C-SPAN.