By New York Times |Washington |Updated: January 9, 2019 11:51:51 am
Experts reject Trump’s claims that terrorists are menacing border
In a rare prime-time address to the nation, broadcast at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Trump was expected to describe a national security crisis brewing at the Mexican border. It was his opportunity to directly defend his demands for $5.7 billion for a border wall — funding that congressional Democrats have refused to provide, fueling the 18-day government shutdown.
(By Eric Schmitt, David E. Sanger and Glenn Thrush)
President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that terrorists are pouring into the United States from Mexico, in one of his central justifications for building a border wall.
But his own government’s assessments conclude that Trump has seriously overstated the threat. And counterterrorism officials and experts said there had never been a case of a known terrorist sneaking into the country through open areas of the southwest border.
Despite the administration’s focus on security threats at the border, a White House strategy document sent to Congress last month outlining steps needed to monitor and intercept terrorists included no reference to the need for construction of barriers, fences or walls. Separately, an intelligence analysis concluded that cyberattacks are the top threat to the United States — not terrorists at the border.
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In Oval Office speech, Trump demands a wall
President Donald Trump urges Congress in a televised speech to give him $5.7 billion this year to help build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico but stopped short of declaring a national emergency to pay for the barrier with military funds.
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