OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 9:22 AM PT – Sat. January 5, 2019
As the shutdown fight continues over the border, the president is highlighting the potential dangers of illegal migration.
In a series of tweets Saturday, the president said the administration is working on border security, but added “we need a wall.”The border fence between San Diego, Calif., and Tijuana, is reflected on a puddle of sea water as seen from Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Discouraged by the long wait to apply for asylum through official ports of entry, many migrants from recent caravans are choosing to cross the U.S. border wall and hand themselves in to border patrol agents. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
He added Democrats are asking for billions in foreign aid, but said “they don’t want to spend a fraction of that amount on securing the border.”
The president also touched on border crime, saying “in 2018, 1.7 pounds of narcotics has been seized” at the border.
He said there was a “big human trafficking problem” adding “17,000 adults with criminal records were apprehended, including 6,000 thousand gang members, including MS-13.”
Meantime, authorities in Tijuana begin evicting migrants from a shelter that’s being closed for sanitary purposes.
Federal police stood by Friday, to ensure the 100 odd migrants living in the shelter were moving out.
Health officials said the industrial site was overcrowded and lacked the proper facilities for a healthy living space.
They are offering to house the migrants in a former concert venue, but many of them are not happy because its farther away from the U.S. border.
Many migrants have claimed the cramped and unsanitary living conditions in Tijuana are the reason they would rather jump the border illegally than wait for asylum.
We are working hard at the Border, but we need a WALL! In 2018, 1.7 million pounds of narcotics seized, 17,000 adults arrested with criminal records, and 6000 gang members, including MS-13, apprehended. A big Human Trafficking problem.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2019