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TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 30, 2018 3A
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE I Associated Press
Tourists arrive to visit the U.S. Capitol on a rainy morning in Washington, Friday, Dec. 28,
during a partial government shutdown.
Government shutdown
goes on with no end,
no solution in sight
Trump blames Dems
for migrant child deaths
at US-Mexico border
CATARINA GOMEZ I Associated Press
This Dec, 12, photo provided by Catarina Gomez on
Thursday, Dec. 27, shows her half-brother Felipe Gomez
Alonzo, 8, near her home in Yalambojoch, Guatemala.
BY ZEKE MILLER,
JILL COLVIN AND
LISA MASCARO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi
dent Donald Trump and
Democrats are trading
blame for the partial govern
ment shutdown but doing
little substantive talking with
each other, as the disruption
in federal services and pub
lic employees’ pay slogs into
another weekend.
Trump upped the brink
manship by threatening anew
to close the border with Mex
ico to press Congress to cave
to his demand for money to
pay for a wall. Democrats
vowed to pass legislation
restoring the government as
soon as they take control of
the House on Thursday, but
that won’t accomplish any
thing unless Trump and the
Republican-controlled Sen
ate go along with it.
Cooped up in the White
House after canceling his
planned vacation to his pri
vate Florida club, Trump
tweeted Saturday that he’s
“in the White House waiting
for the Democrats to come
on over and make a deal on
Border Security.” But there
has been little direct contact
between the sides during the
stalemate, and Trump did not
ask Republicans, who hold a
monopoly on power in Wash
ington for another five days,
to keep Congress in session.
The president did leave
the White House on Friday
night to join the three men at
the center of the negotiations,
Vice President Mike Pence,
Trump’s senior adviser and
son-in-law Jared Kushner
and acting chief of staff
Mick Mulvaney, for dinner
at Pence’s residence at the
Naval Observatory.
As he called for Demo
crats to negotiate on the wall,
Trump brushed off blame
that his administration bore
any responsibility for the
recent deaths of two migrant
children in Border Patrol
custody. Trump claimed the
deaths were “strictly the fault
of the Democrats and their
pathetic immigration policies
that allow people to make the
long trek thinking they can
enter our country illegally.”
His comments on Twitter
came as his Homeland Secu
rity secretary met with medi
cal professionals and ordered
policy changes meant to bet
ter protect children detained
at the border.
Meanwhile, the effects
to the public of the impasse
grew as the Environmental
Protection Agency, which
had the money to function
a week longer than some
agencies, implemented its
shutdown plan at midnight
Friday night.
EPA spokeswoman Molly
Block said many of the
agency’s 14,000 employees
were being furloughed, while
disaster-response teams and
certain other employees
deemed essential would stay
on the job. That includes
workers needed for prevent
ing immediate public health
threats at more than 800
Superfund hazardous-waste
sites.
Also running short on
money: the Smithsonian Insti
tution, which said its muse
ums, art galleries and zoo in
the capital will close starting
midweek if the partial shut
down drags on.
But federal flood insur
ance policies will continue
to be issued and renewed,
in a reversal prompted by
pressure from lawmakers,
said Republican Sen. Marco
Rubio of Florida.
Trump appeared no closer
to securing money for his sig
nature border wall, which he
vowed during the campaign
that he would make Mexico
pay for. He’s failed to do so.
Now Democratic leaders are
adamant that they will not
authorize money for the proj
ect, calling it wasteful and
ineffective. They show no
signs of bending, either.
“We are far apart,” White
House press secretary Sarah
Sanders told CBS on Friday.
Trump tweeted: “We will
be forced to close the South
ern Border entirely if the
Obstructionist Democrats do
not give us the money to fin
ish the Wall & also change the
ridiculous immigration laws
that our Country is saddled
with.” He also threatened to
cut off U.S. aid to El Salvador,
Guatemala and Honduras,
among countries he deems
have not done enough to com
bat illegal immigration.
He’s made similar threats
in the past without following
through, and it is Congress,
not the president, that appro
priates aid money.
The shutdown is forcing
hundreds of thousands of fed
eral workers and contractors
to stay home or work without
pay.
Mulvaney said Democrats
are no longer negotiating
with the administration over
an earlier offer by the White
House to accept less than the
$5 billion Trump wants for
the wall.
Democrats said the White
House offered to accept $2.5
billion for border security,
but that Senate Democratic
leader Chuck Schumer told
Vice President Mike Pence
that it wasn’t acceptable. It
was also not guaranteed that
Trump would settle for that
amount.
“There’s not a single Dem
ocrat talking to the president
of the United States about this
deal,” Mulvaney said Friday.
Speaking on Fox News and
later to reporters, he tried to
drive a wedge between Dem
ocrats, pinning the blame on
House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi.
Mulvaney said Schumer
was “really interested in
doing a deal and coming to
some sort of compromise”
but he understood that Pelosi
was at risk of losing the
speakership of the House if
she went along. “So we’re
in this for the long haul,” he
said.
In fact, Pelosi has all but
locked up the support she
needs to win the speaker’s
gavel after the new Congress
convenes on Thursday, and
there has been no sign that
she and Schumer are in
conflict.
“For the White House to
try and blame anyone but
the president for this shut
down doesn’t pass the laugh
test,” said Justin Goodman, a
spokesman for Schumer.
Pelosi has vowed to pass
legislation to reopen the nine
shuttered departments and
dozens of agencies now hit
by the partial shutdown as
soon as she takes the gavel.
But that alone won’t solve
the shutdown, absent Sen
ate approval and Trump’s
signature.
YUMA, Ariz. — Presi-
dent Donald Trump
deflected any blame from
his administration for the
deaths of two Guatemalan
children this month in U.S.
custody as his Homeland
Security chief visited Bor
der Patrol medical officials
amid promises of more thor
ough health screenings for
migrant children.
Instead, the president,
whose administration has
faced widespread criticism
over the deaths, pointed the
finger on Twitter at Demo
crats “and their pathetic
immigration policies that
allow people to make the
long trek thinking they can
enter our country illegally.”
He also tweeted that the
children were “very sick
before they were given over
to Border Patrol.”
The president’s com
ments came Saturday
afternoon, the same day
Homeland Security Secre
tary Kirstjen Nielsen was
visiting Yuma, Arizona, to
meet with medical staff at
the border. Nielsen said in
a statement that “the system
is clearly overwhelmed and
we must work together to
address this humanitarian
crisis.” She called on Con
gress to “act with urgency. ”
Her office said she was
briefed in El Paso, Texas,
on Friday on “recently insti
tuted secondary medical
screenings and the more
thorough initial health
screenings of migrants.”
El Paso Mayor Dee
Margo said he met with
Nielsen and told CNN on
Saturday that he agreed
with her that the immigra
tion policy is “broken.”
“El Paso is dealing with
the symptoms as a result of
the lack of fortitude in Wash
ington, on both sides of the
aisle, to deal with our immi
gration policy,” the Republi
can said.
Nielsen’s trip came days
after the death of 8-year-
old Felipe Gomez Alonzo in
Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Felipe was the second Gua
temalan child to die in gov
ernment custody in three
weeks. A 7-year-old girl
died in El Paso earlier this
month.
Nielsen has called the
death “deeply concerning
and heartbreaking” and
requested medical help
from other government
agencies, including the U.S.
Coast Guard. As Nielsen
made the trip to Texas,
New Mexico’s Democratic
senators, Tom Udall and
Martin Heinrich, sent her
a letter Friday seeking
answers about the boy’s
death.
“The timeline, action and
factors that led to Felipe’s
death are still developing,
but the information that
has become public so far
is alarming and demands
immediate attention and
investigation,” the letter
says.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva,
an Arizona Democrat whose
district includes Yuma and
much of the U.S.-Mexico-
border, on Saturday issued
a statement saying Nielsen
was visiting Yuma “under
the dark cloud of a Repub
lican-induced government
shutdown, the president’s
threats to close the border
and the tragic deaths of two
children in DHS custody.
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