Fox News has claimed that the Democrats will support some funding for President Trump’s southern border wall, but only in exchange for less beds at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. Senator Graham, speaking on the channel, sees that as a non-starter.
“[President Trump] can’t sign such a bill, and I don’t know if that’s 100% accurate, but I think that’s the impasse we have. They’re willing to give the president a little more money for the wall, but in return they want to limit the number of bed spaces allowed to house violent criminals,” said Graham.
“This goes back to AOC’s [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s] belief that ICE should be abolished,” added Graham. “So, the bottom line is how can you get money for a wall and at the same time limit spaces for violent offenders and say you’ve solved the immigration problem. You’ve actually incentivizing more illegal immigration by reducing the bed space, and it undercuts any money you’d get for a wall. He can’t sign that bill.”
“If that’s the friction point, then we’ll have a Continuing Resolution and we’ll just keep talking,” concluded Graham.
The government was shut down for over a month over an impasse surrounding President Trump’s insistence for border wall funding, with the impasse further strengthened by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s insistence to not allow a vote on any funding bill that did not include border wall funding.
A continuing resolution was put into place to stop the shutdown two weeks ago, with the stipulation that a bill that includes Donald Trump’s demand for over 5 billion dollars in funding for a border wall be included. Talks over that budget have broken down over this weekend, leading to speculation that another shutdown is forthcoming.
Many ICE facilities are privately operated, and require a certain number of beds in order to retain profitability. Once such company, GEO Groups, was awarded a $110 Million, 10-year agreement in April of 2017, to run the 1,000-bed Montgomery Processing Center in Texas. CoreCivic, which runs the South Texas Family Residential Center, was awarded a $1 billion contract in 2014, though terms were renegotiated to a lower cost in 2016.
View the exchange below.
Image via screen capture from video source.