Trump to address nation on security Tuesday, visit U.S.-Mexico border

Jan. 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump will discuss national security in a national prime-time address Tuesday, less than two days before he travels to the U.S.-Mexico barrier, the White House said.

The president announced the address Monday afternoon.

“I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern,” he tweeted.

Earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders similarly announced in a Twitter post the president will travel to the border Thursday to “meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis.”

A new wall for the border wall is at the center of the ongoing federal shutdown. Trump has demanded that billions for the wall be included in any bill that funds and reopens the government. Spending bills passed by both houses of Congress so far have included no such money.

The Senate passed a bill two weeks ago to keep the government open, but included no wall funds. A day later, the then-GOP-controlled House included money for the wall in its spending bill — but no action was taken. Last week, the new Democratic-controlled House passed another funding bill that included no money for the barrier. Though that bill would’ve likely passed the upper chamber, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he wouldn’t send any bill to Trump he knows would be vetoed.

Democrats in the House and Senate have rejected funding at $5 billion levels Trump has asked for.

Trump traveled to San Diego last May to view prototypes of his wall. While Congress has approved additional money for border security in the past, none of it has been spent on new wall designs.

Trump has told Democrats he is willing to keep the federal government shutdown for months, or even years, to get the funding he wants to build the wall.

Also Monday, Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Joaquin Castro led a delegation to Alamogordo, N.M., to investigate the death of a migrant child at the border Dec. 25.

Felipe Gomez Alonzo died in U.S. custody, becoming the second migrant child to do so last month. The delegation was set to tour the border facility and discuss immigrants’ health and safety.