This has nothing to do with immigrants or the border.
With President Trump holding the federal government ransom to pay for a wall he promised Mexico would fund, and considering the declaration of a “national emergency” to force the military to construct it, he has resorted to several different arguments. Beyond the desire to keep a campaign promise, or allegedly save money, Trump’s main argument has been that building a wall will keep Americans safe.
The cruel irony is that the government shutdown, caused by Trump’s insistence on wall funding, is actually making Americans less secure in a variety of ways.
On Monday, Trump sent out a campaign email asking supporters to sign a petition to “tell Democrats to build the wall” because, “They don’t care about your safety, they only care about Presidential Harassment!” The hosts of Fox News’ Fox & Friends agree with Trump’s security argument, saying last week that while the shutdown might be “an inconvenience” to some, “you deserve to be able to go to sleep at night and not have to worry about being killed by an illegal immigrant.”
View the complete January 8 article by Ryan Koronowski on the ThinkProgress.org website here.