Migrants from Honduras approach the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Tijuana, Mexico, December 26, 2018. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Democrats will keep a quarter of the federal government shuttered, if that will stop Trump from fulfilling his biggest campaign pledge.

‘The Democrats don’t want to let us have strong borders — only for one reason. You know why? Because I want it,” said President Donald J. Trump Wednesday, to the laughter of U.S. troops at Iraq’s Al Asad Air Base. “But you gave me an idea, just looking at this warrior group. I think I’ll say, ‘I don’t want the wall.’ And then they’re going to give it to me.”


President Trump is on to something. Democrats seem determined to stop his plans for a southern-border wall as revenge for beating Hillary Clinton. They hate Trump’s guts more than they love America. In Fiscal Year 2018 alone, federal officers apprehended 396,579 illegal aliens on the southwest border. The Left loves the fact that those who were caught and released, and others who break into America undetected, likely will become Democrats. So, from their perspective, why give President Trump this win?

Some of this might be semantics. The name for the U.S.–Mexican divide could matter politically.


“I had over a half a dozen Senate Democrats tell me just Friday [December 21], that if we call it anything but a wall, they’d be all for it,” Senator David Perdue (R., Ga.) told Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. “This is ridiculous. This is all about resisting Trump and not taking care of the business that we have as a Senate.”

Building “a fence” seems less than what Trump promised. Perhaps, then, erecting a “barrier” would let Democrats believe that they kept Republicans from getting what they want while Republicans just might find that they got what they need.


Such a linguistic compromise could end the nearly week-old partial shutdown. After all, this word worked just fine for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s in 2015: “I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in,” she bragged to voters on the campaign trail. “I do think you have to control your borders.”

However, even that might not satisfy today’s Democrats. They seem committed to keeping a quarter of the federal government shuttered, if that’s what it takes to stop President Trump from fulfilling his biggest campaign pledge.


So, as Democrats just say, “No!” to President Trump’s wall, they are colluding in several serious, deadly ills. Until they support a wall:

If Democrats want these evils to continue, then they should remain on their current course. If they prefer to limit or end these horrors, they should cease their hatred for President Trump, approve the House’s $5.7 billion in barrier funds, and conclude their partial government shutdown.

— Incoming Bucknell University student Michael Malarkey contributed research for this opinion article.