billion for that wall for amnesty and for daca, and he turned it down! instead of relitigating the immigration reform, i want to talk about where we are right now, bill, which is you tweeted something that was interesting. you said the president doesn t have a governing strategy right now. he just has a political strategy get his base on board and fight. yeah, doesn t even really have a political strategy in the sense of winning re-election, expanding his vote. he has a save myself from the senate voting to convict after the house impeaches me strategy. so, it s really coming down to whipping up his core base and the wall does that, and that s why he s doing this. i think this shutdown ends with senate republicans blinking. i mean, everyone assumes they just go along with the president because they have over the past years, but there are real consequences to a government showdown. epa, agriculture. the airline pilots association i saw representing 61,000 airline pilots has a lett
within his power legally to make sure those folks got paid, and we were able to do that. we were able to move money around legally, and presidents have the ability to do that. this president has the ability to do that as well in other areas and we will explore opportunities to do that. i don t think that excuses what president obama did on the daca decision several years ago. but do you think that president trump should use emergency powers to fund the border wall? presidents have authority to defend the nation. the president has asked every single cabinet secretary and the office of management and budget to go out and find money that can be used legally to guard the southern border, which is exactly what we re going to do. so, you would support it if he wanted to do it? i m actually heavily involved in it and have been working with all of the cabinet secretaries to try and find money that we can legally use to defend the southern border. the president said on friday that mex
deal we have with mexico and canada, what we save on that just with mexico will pay for the wall many times over. now, obviously, congress has not yet ratified the usmca. but even assuming that does, that money doesn t go from mexico to the u.s. treasury to then pay for the wall. explain to me how the math works. the president s talked about this i think since he announced the usmca a couple months ago, is that it s so much better for us economically that when businesses do better, when the american citizens do better, taxpayers do better, the government makes more money. so we will be taking in more money as part of our relationship with mexico, and that could be available to build the wall. now, it still requires appropriation, as does all money. if mexico actually wrote us a check, it would still have to go into treasury and then be appropriated by congress. that s how our system works. i want to turn to a comment in incoming congresswoman rashida tlaib. the president said her
if you can t even have a basic understanding of the facts, it s going to be very difficult to come to an agreement. well, when you talk about the crisis at the border, which president trump is talking a lot about, republican congressman will hurd of texas, retired cia officer, his district in southern texas includes more than 40% of the border, more than 800 miles of it. and he said, building a wall from sea to shining sea would be the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border. true border security demands a flexible, defense-in-depth strategy which includes a mix of personnel, technology and changing tactics, all of which come at a lower price tag than a border wall. that is a loyal republican congressman who knows from former security, former cia officer, and knows the border and says this wall is not a good use of money. and the comment says from sea to shining sea.
the president says he recognizes that technology is better than a barrier, but there are places where there is no substitute for a barrier. the barriers we have up now, in the high-traffic areas, are over 90% effective. so, where we have built a barrier along the southern border, it s reduced criminal immigration by more than 90%. yes, there are places in the mountain in the middle of nowhere technology s actually better and more cost-effective, but that doesn t obviate having a wall where you need it, and that s what this battle is all about. that goes back to the original question about the $5.6 billion is for border security, including the wall. right now their number, i think, for all border security is $1.3 billion, which is clearly inadequate. that is a status quo number, and if all we have is a status quo, then next year we have the same problems as this year, which is simply not acceptable to the president. president trump trying to drum up support for the wall on friday said