President Trump is sticking to earlier demands for tighter border security in the ongoing negotiations over a permanent solution for those seeking protection under the DACA program. A spending bill must be passed by January 19 to avoid a government shutdown. The president has indicated that he would like to see funding for a wall along the southern border in that bill.
Democrats have indicated that they are open to negotiating what they call “reasonable” border security measures in exchange for making the Dream Act permanent law. But Democratic Leader Senator Dick Durbin accused the White House of undercutting months of bipartisan efforts to find permanent fixes to the nation’s broken immigration system with the demand of additional wall funding.
In response to a request for a shorter list of immigration demands, the White House sent congressional Democrats the same list they had previously sent plus a new cost estimate for the Wall. According to the new cost estimate, from the Department of Homeland Security, construction of a wall along the southern border is expected to cost $18 billion over 10 years.