Trump, Inching Toward Border Security Deal, Says Shutdown Would Be ‘Terrible’

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President Trump said he doesn’t want another government shutdown. He also hinted that he has “options that most people don’t understand” to build his border wall without congressional approval.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

By Emily Cochrane and Catie Edmondson

Feb. 13, 2019

WASHINGTON — As congressional leaders urged their colleagues to support a bipartisan border deal, President Trump said on Wednesday that he did not want to see the government shut down at midnight Friday, indicating that he was leaning toward signing the compromise legislation.

“I don’t want to see a shutdown. A shutdown would be a terrible thing,” Mr. Trump said, later hinting that he had “options that most people don’t understand” to build his border wall without congressional approval.

The remarks, which were made to reporters in the Oval Office as Mr. Trump met with the president of Colombia, inched him toward embracing a bipartisan border deal that fell far short of his demands for wall funding. But without a shutdown as leverage, he appeared to have little choice but to sign it if it clears Congress.

On Capitol Hill, negotiators rushed to turn the border compromise into voluminous legislation in time for a House vote on Thursday night and a Senate vote on Friday, while both Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, encouraged their troops to support it.

Both leaders acknowledged that the legislation would not satisfy every member: The border-security agreement deprives Mr. Trump and his Republican base of a victory on the wall, but it gives more money for border fencing and immigration detention than the left wing of the Democratic Party wanted.

But with the impact of the last government shutdown — the longest in the nation’s history — still fresh, few were in the mood to risk another funding lapse.

“As with all compromises, I say to people, support the bill for what is in it,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday. “Don’t judge it for what is not in it. We have other days to pass other legislation.”

Speaking on the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell said the outcome reflected “the way it goes in divided government” and warned against letting “unrelated cynical partisan plays get in the way of finishing this important process.”

The compromise measure, assembled by senior members of both parties on Monday night, includes just $1.375 billion for new fencing along the border with Mexico, far short of the $5.7 billion Mr. Trump sought for a steel or concrete wall — and less than was included in the deal he rejected in December, which prompted the shutdown.

But Mr. Trump got cover from a few allies in the conservative news media and the Senate, with some lawmakers making a point of selling the benefits of the agreement to the president.

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The core of President Trump’s argument for the southern border wall has remained largely the same. But as the fight wears on, his justification has expanded and details like cost and construction materials have evolved.CreditCreditDaniel Ochoa De Olza/Associated Press

Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and one of the senior members who helped put together the compromise measure, said on Twitter that he spoke to Mr. Trump after signing off on the agreement.

“He was in good spirits,” Mr. Shelby said on Twitter. “It’s a down payment on his border wall. This is only the beginning of a multi-year effort.”

As of late Wednesday afternoon, lawmakers and aides were working to resolve lingering issues in the spending package, which includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security and six unfinished spending bills.

Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas and one of the 17 House and Senate lawmakers negotiating a compromise, said there were late discussions about where new fencing could be built in the Rio Grande Valley, in order to address local and environmental concerns, something White House officials pushed back against.

A number of extensions, including a provision that would provide back pay to federal contractors deprived of payments during the last shutdown, will not be included in the package because bicameral leadership negotiations did not result in an agreement, according to a senior Democratic aide. A Republican Senate aide said they felt that back pay could be handled by the Office of Management and Budget without Congress’s involvement.

The unfinished items also include an extension of the Violence Against Women Act, which is set to expire Friday.

Mr. Trump said the White House had not seen the legislative text of the deal, and when aides do, “we’ll be looking for land mines.”

Most Democrats indicated they would support the legislation, even before the text was finished, in part because it would stave off another government shutdown and included Democratic priorities in the other six bills.

Some of the priorities, according to a highlight sheet provided by another Democratic congressional aide, include a $1 billion increase for census funding and $500 million in funding for medical support, food and clothing for migrants in detention and alternatives to detention.

Federal employees will also receive a 1.9 percent increase in pay, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, told reporters, noting that he and other members would most likely pursue a higher number in the future, along with other unaddressed immigration priorities.

Other liberal lawmakers expressed concerns about the funding levels for the number of beds for detained immigrants and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which some had campaigned to abolish.

“I’m trying to maintain an open mind, but I need details,” said Representative Veronica Escobar, a freshman Democrat whose district includes most of El Paso.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has encouraged fellow Democrats to support the bill: “I say to people, support the bill for what is in it. Don’t judge it for what is not in it.”CreditTom Brenner for The New York Times

“The barriers are going to be an issue,” she added, noting that she would prefer no funding for the Department of Homeland Security until it is audited.

At least one legislator, Representative Juan Vargas, Democrat of California, said he would vote against the bill, criticizing the inclusion of new steel-post fencing.

“I think most people just want to get this thing over with,” he said. “I’m not one of those people.”

For some Democrats, the biggest issue is detention slots under the control of the Trump administration. The agreement authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to fund about 40,000 beds for detainees, many of them in centers run by for-profit companies and ICE near the border in Texas, Arizona and California.

House Democratic aides described the language as a “glide path” from the current level of 49,000 detention beds to Obama-era levels of 35,000 or fewer.

But a summary of the provisions drafted by Senate Republican staff members placed the average number of beds funded under the deal at a much higher number — 45,274, including 2,500 for families. And that could rise to as many as 58,500 beds, Republican aides asserted in internal communications, because federal cabinet departments have latitude in how they use funds.

Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington and a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she was likely to vote no on the measure because of what she felt was a “lack of accountability around the detention system.”

“We’ve reduced that number over the next nine months, but the average daily population that we’re appropriating is still too high,” she said. “Unless we have a guarantee from the administration that they’re actually going to listen to what Congress does and our appropriated amounts, we still have a president using every tool at his disposal.”

But the lawmakers who said they were inclined to vote against the measure were not actively seeking support for their position.

Under the complex funding formula in the agreement, the Department of Homeland Security would also have “reprogramming authority” to transfer as much as $750 million from other programs to detention slots.

Democrats have argued that with a new House majority, they can provide harsher oversight than their Republican predecessors and push back on that maneuvering within the department and other federal agencies.

“We’re intent on making sure that this process reflects the congressional intent of where they should be on barriers, on beds, on all these issues that matter to us,” said Representative Pete Aguilar, Democrat of California and one of the 17 negotiators working on the border security agreement.

Robert Pear contributed reporting.

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A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Nearing Deal, Trump Says Shutdown Would Be ‘Terrible’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe