BORDER/CONGRESS/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Donald Trump on Tuesday [1-8-19-] night made a public plea for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, claiming that law enforcement officials are the ones demanding it, while blaming Democrats for the prolonged government shutdown that has resulted from an impasse over how to pay for the barrier. The president, however, did not pull the trigger on a national emergency declaration that would potentially allow him to secure wall funding without Congress but would also inevitably draw a nasty court battle. Instead, he dedicated much of the address to blaming undocumented immigrants for many of the nation’s woes, from opioid addiction to violent crime — correlations that have been repeatedly debunked…The president opened his address by stating that the United States is suffering from a humanitarian and security crisis at the border, as he urged Congress to provide billions of dollars for a steel barrier, calling it ‘absolutely critical.’”
–Matthew Choi and Gabby Orr, “Trump ratchets up plea for a border wall, calling it a ‘crisis of the soul’,” Politico, January 8, 2019 11:55 pm