The Humanitarian Crisis on the Southern Border

… the current state of the government shutdown and insight on what to expect from the Administration in the coming week.

Border Wall funding remains the top priority in any appropriations legislation because of the growing humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border. Three hundred Americans are killed every week from foreign heroin, one in three migrant women are sexually assaulted on the journey northward, and just last month, more than 20,000 minors were smuggled into the United States.

The Democrats continue to keep the government shut down by refusing to negotiate with President Trump on border security. In contrast, President Trump has shown a willingness to negotiate with Democrats on border security—something Democrats were for, before they were against. The President has discussed the option of invoking the National Emergencies Act which authorizes the President to declare a national emergency. Although the President has a strong legal argument by which he may use emergency authority, he shouldn’t have to invoke these authorities if Congress is able to present a bill addressing the border crisis and re-opening the government.

To lighten the burden on those affected by the government shutdown, the Trump Administration has utilized measures like park fees to continuously clean up the national parks and giving authority to the IRS to issue tax refunds despite a government shutdown.

Innovative solutions like these distinguishes the current administration from others, such as the Obama administration, which purposely made government shutdowns as painful as possible on the American people, going so far as to rope off open-air monuments.

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