Press reports said that the congressional Democrats are considering two other options: a resolution continuing funding for the affected agencies through the end of the fiscal year next September 30, or a full-year appropriation for all federal agencies except the Department of Homeland Security, which would operate under a continuing resolution while the border wall issue was negotiated.
All of these actions would be for political effect only, since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will block action on any continuing resolution or appropriation unless it is agreed on by the White House.
Trump forced the shutdown after his initial agreement to sign the continuing resolution, which does not include money for the border wall, was vociferously attacked by Fox News pundits and right-wing radio talk show hosts. He has since escalated the confrontation in an effort to mobilize his fascistic base through appeals to anti-immigrant racism.
The president pursued this track even on his overnight trip for a photo op appearance with US troops at Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq, where he denounced the Democratic Party in front of the soldiers, claiming that while the troops were defending "another country's borders," the Democrats were unwilling to defend the borders of the United States.
There was virtually no response from either the Democrats or the corporate media to this brazen attempt to politicize the military and use it as a club against Trump's critics at home.
On Friday, Trump continued with this theme, threatening to close the US-Mexico border entirely if the Democrats did not "give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with." He concluded with, "We build a wall or close the southern border."
Such an action would be both illegal -- the president has no authority to close the border except in a genuine national security emergency, which hardly exists today -- and economically disastrous for both countries. Cross-border trade between the United States and Mexico is approaching $2 billion a day, and any interruption would have a particularly dire impact on states like Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Trump also threatened to cut off all US aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if the governments of these countries did not take action to halt the exodus of working people fleeing political repression, gang violence and extreme poverty.
While the corporate media portrays the conflict over funding for the border wall as a titanic battle of principle, the Democrats previously agreed to fund the wall as part of a bipartisan deal reached last February that included limited protection against deportation for young immigrants previously covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which Trump unilaterally terminated. That deal collapsed only after Trump demanded additional concessions -- again to appease ultra-right supporters -- to reduce legal immigration.
The pro-Democratic Party Washington Post published an editorial Friday in which it urged the revival of the February "wall for 'dreamers'" deal. "Mr. Trump wants money for his pet border-wall project so badly that he's willing to stage a partial government shutdown," the Post editors wrote. "Democrats should let him have funding for the wall in return for a permanent fix to the immigration status of the 'dreamers,'" they continued, concluding that "there's no real issue of principle preventing a bipartisan deal, just the politics of base-pleasing polarization."
The editorial warned Pelosi not to take too adamant a stand -- no danger there! -- because court orders that have temporarily blocked Trump's decision to rescind DACA are "by no means permanent, however, especially now that conservatives enjoy a solid 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court."
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