Democrats accuse Trump of aggravating crisis at US-Mexico border

US Democrats in the lower chamber of Congress are accusing Republican President Donald Trump of aggravating a crisis situation at the US-Mexico border, saying he has not used funds available to help deal with a surge of migrants and exacerbated the problem with his attempts to crack down.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday the bipartisan legislation that Trump signed to end a government shutdown in February included money for judges and humanitarian aid “to bring order to the border,” but Trump has not used the funds.

Pelosi said comprehensive immigration reform, which has eluded Congress and the White House for years, is still the solution. It is in fact “inevitable,” she said on the sidelines of a Democratic Party meeting in Leesburg, Virginia.

Democrats gained the majority in the House this year. Republicans still control the Senate.

House member Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who represents Washington state’s 7th congressional district, told reporters later that the Trump administration had manufactured a crisis at the border in part by “stripping away” legal routes to immigration, such as by stopping asylum seekers at legal ports of entry.

David Cicilline, another Democrat who runs the House Democrats’ policy and communications committee, said the Trump administration had exacerbated a challenging border situation by not spending money that was appropriated for border facilities and personnel, as well as by cutting off aid to Central American countries for sending migrants to the United States.

“But the administration has responsibility in all these areas. And we can appropriate funding and we can pass legislation but ultimately they are responsible for executing the immigration laws in this country,” he said.

Trying to curb the flow of Central American asylum seekers, the White House has been sending more people back to Mexico to wait for their asylum claims to be heard by US immigration courts.

Trump has threatened to close the US-Mexico border, saying last week that the United States is “full.”

He has urged the building of a wall on the southern border since before he became president in 2016. Recently his ire has been directed at his own officials, Congress, and Latin American countries, who he says have not done enough to stop their citizens from traveling to the United States.

Trump said on Wednesday he would have to mobilize more of the military at the US border with Mexico after listening to stories about migrants crossing the border from people attending a Republican fundraiser.

Trump in February had deployed an additional 3,750 US troops to the country's southwestern border to support Customs and Border Protection agents.

There are currently about 5,000 active-duty and National Guard troops near the border, though that number fluctuates.