US President Donald Trump has renewed a threat to declare a national emergency to fund the construction of a wall on the Mexican border. A row with Democrats over funding the wall has left the government partially shut down for twenty days, leaving some eight hundred thousand federal employees unpaid.
On Saturday, the shutdown becomes the longest in US history. Mr Trump says the wall, a key campaign pledge, is needed to tackle a security crisis of illegal immigration. The Democrats say the wall is an “immorality” and a waste of taxpayers’ money.
President Trump has refused to sign legislation to fund and reopen the government if it does not include five-point-seven billion dollars for the wall.
He issued the threat on a visit on Thursday to a border patrol station in McAllen, in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Trump said that if Congress did not approve funding for the wall, he would probably declare a national emergency to bypass lawmakers.
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