Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The nation returned on Tuesday from a holiday weekend to a government still shut down, 32 days after the costly political impasse began.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to introduce a bill on the Senate floor as early as Tuesday, aides for the senator told ABC News, following a plan announced by the president over the weekend that would trade protections for DACA recipients — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children — for wall funding — though the plan was quickly rejected by Democrats.
The bill is likely to encompass funding for the president’s wall as well as funding for the 25 percent of the government that’s been shut down for the last month. The bill may also include billions of dollars in disaster aid and an extension on a bill that protects women from violence, aides said.
It remains to be seen if the bill will advance in the Senate, given that most Democrats are united in demanding that President Donald Trump must reopen the government before they will begin talks about funding border security.
On Tuesday, the president made another call for a border wall and a promise not to “cave,” despite the 800,000 federal workers without pay while the government is closed.
The president also claimed, without supporting evidence and contrary to studies, that “With a powerful Wall or Steel Barrier, Crime Rates (and Drugs) will go substantially down all over the U.S.”
Without a Wall our Country can never have Border or National Security. With a powerful Wall or Steel Barrier, Crime Rates (and Drugs) will go substantially down all over the U.S. The Dems know this but want to play political games. Must finally be done correctly. No Cave!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
Available data shows that overall, crime rates are lower among immigrant groups than they are among native-born Americans.
As for the president’s claim about drugs, the 2018 Drug Threat Assessment from the Drug Enforcement Administration found that large amounts of drugs enter the U.S. at the southwest border, though the drugs largely come through legal points of entry — which would not be addressed by a border wall.
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