The Congress and the White House's clash over the spending of the government's money towards the construction of Trump's wall continue to be unresolved. However, new reports have revealed that President Trump may be leaning towards a compromise with his long-promised wall between the United States and Mexico.
Threat of government closure
Despite the unresolved issues over spending, the Trump administration has expressed its confidence that a government shutdown will not happen. The GOP is currently facing some tough Democratic opposition in allocating funds toward the construction of Trump's promised 2,200-mile wall.
White House officials even revealed that the president might be open to compromises that would allocate the budget to better Border Security as opposed to building an actual physical wall.
A promise Trump wants to keep
During his campaign trail, the wall along the U.S-Mexican border has been Trump's rallying cry to "make America great again." The president is likely eager to keep his word, or at least report some progress on it, with his 100th day in office set to take place this Saturday.
However, Democrats will likely make it impossible for Trump to keep his word and the president may be forced to look at other means of keeping illegal immigrants out of the country.
Trump initially asked for a budget of $1.5 billion to initiate the wall's construction and an additional $2.6 billion for the next fiscal year.
Experts have calculated that it would take ten times that amount to finish Trump's wall based on the structure that was sketched out in his campaign rhetoric.Despite stiff opposition, Trump still continues to express his take on the entire situation on social media.
Better border security
Instead of building the wall, Democrats offered a better solution in the form of additional funding for border security.
The emphasis of the proposition is to bolster the border's technology is preventing illegal entry. This includes funding for additional border patrols, smarter surveillance technologies, and even the use of drones.
Minority leaders on the Senate floor even explained that the inclusion of these new systems would likely become more effective in deterring illegal entry into the country than building a physical wall.
Defining Trump's wall
Several Republicans have tried to downplay the definition of Trump's campaign promise and argued that an increase in border security may be what the president had promised.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who is for immigration reform, explained that the "wall" had become a symbolic "code word" for better border security. However, some Republicans, such as Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), believe that a wall and improved border technology may go hand in hand in different situations.