Trump on US border control: ‘We may have to close up our country’

President Trump lambasted U.S. immigration policies Saturday, stating that the U.S. may have to “close up” its borders. 

Speaking at a business roundtable in Cleveland, Trump acknowledged that officials are working to repair certain areas of the nation’s border controls, but said the U.S. needs “much more money.”

“We may have to close up our country to get this straight,” he said, but did not offer more details on the logistics.

{mosads}

“You can’t allow people to pour into our country like they’re doing,” Trump went on. “If we don’t have borders, you don’t have a country,” he said, chiding Democrats for “open border” policies.

Trump’s long-standing promises for a new wall stretching across the U.S.-Mexico border suffered a blow earlier this year when Congress allocated only $1.6 billion toward border security measures in a trillion-dollar spending bill — billions less than the White House demanded. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection noted a recent surge in border crossings from Mexico during March after seeing a historic low in 2017.

Last month, the Pentagon authorized the deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops to be sent to the border in Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona as part of Trump’s plan to strengthen immigration enforcement along the southern border.