Call it, as President Trump does, a “wall.” Lately, he’s been saying, “steel slats.”

Or call it, as Democrats did in 2006, a “fence.”

Back then, before the Democratic Party got hijacked by this crazy left-wing fringe, Democrats joined President George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress to erect a physical barrier to halt illegal aliens from streaming across the border illegally.

President Barack Obama voted for it. As did his vice president, Joseph R. Biden. Even America’s perennial “next president,” Hillary Rodham Clinton, voted for the “Secure Fence Act of 2006.”

As did Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of the kooky state of California. Even honorary Democrat, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, voted for the “Secure Fence Act of 2006.”

Now, they tell us, it is immoral to construct a physical barrier along the border. It kills children, they claim, who have been dragged through the dangerous desert by irresponsible adults to cross the border illegally.

Sen. Tim Kaine, who will forever go down in political history as America’s “next vice president,” took the occasion of Christmastime to use the border crisis to politicize the Christian holiday while at the same time dragging religion into politics.

Mr. Kaine announced that no less than Joseph and Mary — and even Jesus, Himself — are stranded at the border today.

“Today we think about the enduring message of a young couple turned away because there was no room, only to give birth to a child in a humble stable,” Mr. Kaine preached over Twitter on Christmas Day. “The world is filled with millions seeking refuge, and we are all like innkeepers — let us choose wisely in how we treat them.”

Perhaps all the “refugees” at the border can go live with Mr. Kaine and his family and he can take care of them all. And since he failed so spectacularly at the whole “next vice president” thing, maybe he can go into preaching full time and make enough money to support all the millions of “refugees” living in his basement.

There is another Christmas story about the border this year.

His name is Cpl. Ronil Singh, a California police officer who immigrated legally from Fiji and was living the American Dream and serving his community. The day after Christmas this year, Cpl. Singh was shot and killed, allegedly, by an illegal alien, who was part of a violent street gang.

Cpl. Singh left behind a grieving wife and a 5-month-old son.

This is what happens in society when a nation of laws devolves into lawlessness. Social “justice” trumps “equal justice under law” and becomes a mockery.

This is the party that Democrats have turned into. They stand with “sanctuary cities” and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement over laws and equal justice.

It is true that they are playing word games today. But their silly sophomoric semantics are not over words like “wall” or “fence” or “slats” or “barrier.”

There is only one word that they are having fits over today. That word is “Trump.”

Democrats would rather shut down the federal government, sacrifice justice and slay the law in the name of “sanctuary” for illegal aliens. It has become their latest religion. Anything to keep from standing beside President Trump on the side of equal justice under law.

• Contact Charles Hurt at churt@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @charleshurt.