President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that his administration is prepared to "build a human wall if necessary," amid ongoing talks to prevent another government shutdown over funding for his long-promised border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
"Tremendous numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our Southern Border," Trump claimed in a tweet. "We have sent additional military. We will build a Human Wall if necessary."
"If we had a real Wall, this would be a non-event!" the U.S. leader added.
Tremendous numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our Southern Border. We have sent additional military. We will build a Human Wall if necessary. If we had a real Wall, this would be a non-event!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2019
The president has remained firm in his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for his much-vaunted border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Congress members on both sides of the aisle are racing to reach a resolution before February 15, when funding to keep the government running as border security talks continue runs out.
Trump's threat to build a "human wall" at the border came following the Pentagon's announcement on Sunday that nearly 4,000 additional U.S. troops would be deployed to the southern border to provide assistance to U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel.
The Department of Defense said in a statement that 3,750 troops would be deployed to assist immigration officers for at least 90 days, with military troops so far tasked with helping lay down concertina wire and assisting with surveillance at the border.
The U.S. leader's "human wall" threat also came as he prepares to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.
Hours before Trump's speech, the Center for American Progress (CAP) released a list of the president's "top immigration lies" anticipating that the president "will undoubtedly return to his favorite theme of spreading lies to attack immigrants in tonight's State of the Union address."
Noting that "border apprehensions have declined by more than 75 percent since 2000" and that many of the individuals arriving at the border are "children and families seeking asylum," CAP said that there is a "humanitarian emergency" at the border, "not a border security crisis."
The organization also said that "a border wall would do little to stop the entry of illegal drugs along the southern border," noting that "most drug trafficking occurs through ports of entry into the United States and often through the mail." "Investing in new screening equipment at ports of entry and mail processing facilities would be far more effective," CAP said.
It also took aim at Trump over what CAP branded his "biggest lie thus far," that Mexico will pay for his long-promised border wall.
"Mexico is not paying for the wall," CAP said, noting that Trump "even shut down the government over a $5.7 billion down payment on the wall. The reality is that taxpayers will foot the bill and landowners on the border are likely to lose their property to eminent domain."
"The president has consistently peddled an anti-immigrant narrative built on lies and misinformation, Laura Muñoz Lopez, special assistant for Immigration Policy at CAP, said in a statement.
"As the American people listen to President Trump's speech, they should remember that contrary to what the president peddles as the truth, poll after poll shows that the American public supports immigrants and immigration reform and rejects the Trump administration's lies and nativist agenda," Muñoz Lopez said.
Indeed, a recent poll conducted by Gallup found that the vast majority of Americans do want undocumented immigrants in the country to be given "the chance to become U.S. citizens" if they meet certain requirements over a period of time.
The poll, which saw 1,022 people surveyed between January 21 and 27, found that at least 81 percent of Americans wanted to see undocumented immigrants provided with a path to citizenship, while 61 percent said they were opposed to deporting undocumented immigrants back to their home countries.
Meanwhile, Trump will be heading into his third State of the Union address on Tuesday evening with the lowest job approval rating of any president in U.S. history at this point in his time in office, with the exception of Ronald Reagan.
Trump's current approval rating stands at 40 percent, which is an increase from January, when it stood at 37 percent amid the longest government shutdown in the country's history.
At this point in his tenure, only Reagan had a lower approval rating than Trump, at 35 percent, before heading into his State of the Union address in 1983. George W. Bush's approval rating was at 60 percent in 2003, while Barack Obama was at 50 percent in 2011.
