Trump digs in on border-wall funds as congressional negotiators prepare to convene

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that lawmakers would be "wasting their time" if they do not discuss a wall or physical barrier along the Southern border as part of a deal to stave off another government shutdown. But some Democrats said their starting point in the new negotiation is no money for physical barriers of any kind.

"The wall doesn't work. You can go under. You can climb over. You can go around," said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, a member of the bipartisan House-Senate conference committee that was created as part of a deal to end the 35-day partial government shutdown Friday. The group meets for the first time Wednesday afternoon.

"The bottom line is, is my position is 'no,'" said Cuellar, who represents a district along the U.S.-Mexico border and said he was reflecting the unified stance of House Democrats on the conference committee.

The comments underscored the difficulty the 17-member committee will have in resolving the central dispute that led to the shutdown in the first place and threatens another one when short-term government spending runs out Feb. 15.

The president continues to demand funding for his long-promised border wall, while Democrats - emboldened after they forced Trump to back down last week and accept a short-term solution with no wall money - do not want to give it to him.

The president's message was delivered in a morning tweet hours before the committee holds its first meeting.

"If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

In a separate tweet, Trump referred to a "Fox & Friends" segment about migrant caravans heading in the direction of the border - a tactic Trump also employed last month before negotiations broke down over his demand for $5.7 billion in border-wall funding.

Despite some uncompromising positions being staked out ahead of their first meeting, other lawmakers expressed optimism that the committee, filled with dealmakers rather than hard-liners, could find a path toward agreement.

"There's good people in that conference committee, I think we can come to an amiable conclusion if we're left to our own device," said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., another committee member.

Tester emphasized Trump should stay out of it even though "that's not his nature, it's not what he typically does."

And he said he himself is open to fencing on the border, "as long as it's part of what we analyze as actually making the southern border more secure."

Bipartisan congressional spending bills, for years, have funded new and rebuilt levee walls, fences and bollards of various types along the U.S.-Mexico border. The stopgap spending bill that's keeping the government running contains $1.3 billion for new and replacement fencing - an extension of 2018 funding levels for that purpose.

The agreement announced Friday will keep the government open until Feb. 15 while the congressional committee searches for a compromise.

Trump has threatened another shutdown if a package is not to his liking. He has also raised the possibility of declaring a national emergency, which could allow him to direct the military to construct a border wall without congressional consent.

Such a move would almost certainly draw court challenges.

Expectations are low for any resolution from the 1:30 p.m. meeting at the Capitol, with more speeches staking out positions than actual negotiations.

Democrats plan to lay out the border security solutions they support, which include more manpower, technological improvements of various kinds, and potentially more aid to Central America and Mexico. But it's unclear to members of both parties what, exactly, Trump would be prepared to support in the end, and that uncertainty clouds their deliberations.

Ahead of the conference committee meeting Wednesday morning, White House legislative affairs director Shahira Knight met behind closed doors with bipartisan members of the House "Problem Solvers" coalition.

One member of the group, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., said that Knight contended that the White House had made their position clear on border security and immigration, but said that he challenged her on that point.

"She said that they had made their position clear. And I challenged her, I said, 'That's wonderful.' She said - she used the term 'secret sauce.' I said, 'Well, we all want to find out what the secret sauce is,' I said, 'but for many of us it's not clear,' " Costa said.

"I came out of that meeting with, I believe, on her part was a sincere desire to work an agreement out," Costa added. "But I think that the details from my perspective as to what would be the basis of that agreement, for me, was not clear."

During a television appearance Tuesday night, the president's son Eric Trump predicted that his father would declare an emergency if negotiations do not yield sufficient border-wall funding.

"I want him to declare an emergency," Eric Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity, a frequent sounding board for the president.

During a Senate hearing Tuesday that featured an array of U.S. intelligence officials, none said there is a security crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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The Washington Post's Robert Costa contributed to this report.