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Trump Warns of “Very Long” Government Shutdown over Border Wall

HeadlineDec 26, 2018

The latest migrant child death comes as the federal government entered its fifth day of a partial shutdown over President Trump’s demands for more money for an expanded wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, with 88 percent of Department of Homeland Security workers among federal employees forced to work without pay. On Christmas Day, Trump said the shutdown will last until Democrats agree to $5 billion in new funding, despite his campaign pledge that he would make Mexico pay for the wall.

President Donald Trump: “I can’t tell you when the government’s going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want, but it’s all the same thing. It’s a barrier from people pouring into our company—into our country, from drugs. It’s a barrier from drugs.”

On Twitter, Trump posted a graphic of a border wall with the caption, “A design of our Steel Slat Barrier which is totally effective while at the same time beautiful!” Trump said he would be heading to Texas at the end of January for a groundbreaking.

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