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Trump on border security debate: "Without a wall, it doesn't work"

CBS News Live
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President Trump met with a group of sheriffs at the White House on Monday where he again made the case for a border barrier, citing the need to keep out criminals and drug traffickers. He says it's more complicated than the issue of bed capacity in detention centers and stressed the need for a physical wall.

"Without a wall it doesn't work," said Mr. Trump. He added, "We can call it anything, well call it whatever they want, they [Democrats] don't want to give us money for the wall, they don't want to give us the space to detain [people]."

The president's remarks come as a group of Republican and Democratic appropriators meet Monday afternoon to try to broker a border security agreement after negotiations to avert another government shutdown stalled over the weekend.  Talks between a bipartisan group of House and Senate negotiators, largely made up of appropriators with experience on committees with oversight of Department of Homeland Security (DHS), broke down over the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) beds in detention centers — which Democrats want to cap and reduce.   

Mr. Trump once again blamed Congressional Democrats for standing in the way of his border security plans, saying Democrats want to "allow criminals into our society." He later said that border security agents and ICE officials were being "very disrespected" by the Democrats. 

"They take out MS-13 and others by the thousands and they want to cut ICE, we're not going to let that happen," Mr. Trump said. 

The president made the remarks before leaving for El Paso, Texas where he will deliver a speech at a "Make America Great Again" rally. He told reporters he was "going there to keep our country safe."

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