Panel: Immigration reform would take a day if we were in charge
By Graham Vyse | Governing
A bipartisan group of border-state mayors in Washington, D.C., this week urged the federal government to pass comprehensive immigration reform and criticized President Donald Trump’s focus on building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
“We need to protect our borders,” Republican Mayor Dee Margo of El Paso, Texas, said on Thursday during a panel discussion held just blocks from the White House at the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) winter meeting. “But this whole idea of focusing on a wall — $1.3 billion or $5.7 billion — is a bunch of malarkey. That’s not dealing with the issue.”
“The only real wall is between the president and Congress,” added Democratic Mayor Tim Keller of Albuquerque, N.M., who spoke alongside Margo on the panel.
A day after the mayors discussed immigration on Thursday, Trump announced a temporary end to the federal government shutdown, which is now the longest in U.S. history. He and congressional leaders have agreed to reopen the government for three weeks while discussions about his demands for border wall money continue. If a “fair deal” is not struck by Feb. 15, The Washington Post reports that Trump said the government could shut down again.
