Trump Says Military to Build Border Wall If Congress Won’t Fund It

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump lashed out at Democrats on border security ahead of a meeting with the party’s congressional leaders aimed at avoiding a partial government shutdown, threatening to order the military to build his border wall if lawmakers don’t fund it.

“If the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country, the Military will build the remaining sections of the Wall,” Trump said in a stream of Twitter messages Tuesday.

Trump is meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the White House on Tuesday, as lawmakers and the administration negotiate spending legislation to avoid a partial government shutdown after Dec 21. Pelosi told Democrats that she’ll oppose any funding for border fencing above $1.3 billion, according to a Democratic aide who requested anonymity.

Trump cannot legally take funding Congress has appropriated for one purpose and use it for another, such as building a border wall. But Trump’s rhetoric is an indication the president may be coming to terms with a scenario in which Democrats won’t accept his demand to fund the project.

Pentagon spokesman Jamie Davis said that while the military doesn’t currently have plans to build portions of a border wall, “Congress has provided options under Title 10 U.S. Code that could permit the Department of Defense to fund border barrier projects, such as in support of counter drug operations or national emergencies.”

Trump claimed in another tweet that Democrats “for strictly political reasons and because they have been pulled so far left, do NOT want Border Security. They want Open Borders for anyone to come in. This brings large scale crime and disease.”

Despite Trump’s repeated claims to the contrary, Democrats in Congress have never proposed doing away with border rules. They generally have supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants -- but only those who meet certain criteria. Democrats in 2013 led the charge to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, an effort that would have bolstered border security measures but which stalled because of opposition from Republicans who controlled the House.

Trump has been threatening for months to partially close government unless he gets more money for the wall than Democrats have been willing to give him. Although Republicans still control both chambers, Trump needs Democratic support in the Senate to get the 60 votes needed to advance a spending bill.

Trump raised an alarm during the midterm election campaign about a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants making their way through Mexico to the U.S. border and deployed military troops to assist the border patrol. He asserted on Twitter that the migrants “have not been able to get through” and shortly afterward the Department of Homeland Security released data in support of the claim.

The department said the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had apprehended 1,036 caravan migrants as of Monday, and Mexico sent 812 people back to their home countries and another 226 accepted asylum there. There are 5,000 people waiting in the San Ysidro border entry, the department said. The statement didn’t explain how the border patrol determined which migrants apprehended at the border had participated in the caravan.

A group of about 6,000 migrants from Central America has massed in temporary shelters near Tijuana. The Associated Press reported many of them have begun girding for a lengthy asylum process by seeking work in Mexico.

--With assistance from Jennifer Jacobs, Erik Wasson and Tony Capaccio.

To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Derek Wallbank at dwallbank@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen Hunter

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.