By: Louis Nelson – politico.com – February 6, 2018

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for a government shutdown if Congress does not pass what he considers adequate border-security measures.

“If we don’t get rid of these loopholes where killers are allowed to come into our country and continue to kill … if we don’t change it, let’s have a shutdown,” Trump said at a White House roundtable focused on the gang MS-13. “We’ll do a shutdown, and it’s worth it for our country. I’d love to see a shutdown if we don’t get this stuff taken care of.”

Trump’s statement followed a parade of remarks from state, local and federal law enforcement officials about violence propagated by MS-13, which was founded in Los Angeles by refugees from El Salvador. His demand for border-security measures did not match the current efforts to avoid a government shutdown on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers still hope to reach an immigration deal, but debate around keeping the government open has focused on defense spending this time around, not the border.

“We have to strengthen our borders, not by a little bit but by a lot,” Trump said. “We are so far behind the time. And by the way, the world is laughing at us because they can’t believe these policies. We’re going to get it stopped. And if we have to shut it down because the Democrats don’t want safety — and unrelated but still related, they don’t want to take care of our military — then shut it down. We’ll go with another shutdown.”

A shutdown over immigration and border security policy would be the second this year after Congress failed to reach an agreement last month on a short-term government funding measure, prompting a three-day shutdown that occurred mostly over a weekend.

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Source: Trump calls for shutdown if Congress doesn’t pass border-security measures