WASHINGTON: US
President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed opposition Democrats for the death of
two immigrant children in US custody, comments set to heighten tensions as the
second week of a government shutdown began over his demands for a wall on the
US-Mexico border. "Any deaths of children or others at the Border are
strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies
that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country
illegally. They can't. If we had a Wall, they wouldn't even try!," Trump
said on Twitter.

His comments came
after the separate deaths of two Guatemalan children, aged seven and eight, who
crossed the border illegally with relatives who were taken into custody by US
Border Patrol. The tweet hardened Trump's tone after an earlier message on
Twitter that said the next move in the eight-day budget standoff over border
wall funding belonged to the Democrats. "I am in the White House waiting
for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security,"
Trump tweeted.

But members of
Congress, most of them home for the holidays, kept low profiles, and there were
no evident signs of any imminent breakthrough. One Democratic representative,
Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania, said in a tweet posted by his staff that Trump
was "reaching new lows with these ridiculous tweets. His administration is
the cause of pain and suffering that is taking place at the border. Nothing that
he says will alter this truth." Others called the Trump tweets
"disturbing" and pointed out that US immigration policies have been
in place for years without children dying in government custody.

Homeland Security
Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was in Yuma, Arizona, on a trip to witness border
operations first hand after saying last week that the US will take
"extraordinary" protective measures to deal with a surge of immigrant
children in custody. Eight-year-old Felipe Gomez, who collapsed after running a
fever, died in US custody after traveling with his father Agustin Gomez from an
indigenous community in Guatemala. He died on the same day that Jakelin Caal, a
Guatemalan girl who died in US custody under similar circumstances earlier this
month, was buried back in her home village.

In the last two
months, US Border Patrol agents have apprehended 139,817 people on the
southwest border, compared with 74,946 during the same period a year earlier,
Nielsen said. More than 68,500 were "family units" while almost
14,000 others were unaccompanied children, she said, and the system has been
pushed to the "breaking point". When the shutdown began on Dec 22,
affecting a quarter of the federal government, Trump canceled his plans to
spend the year-end holidays in Florida and vowed to remain at the White House -
though he made a quick, unannounced trip to visit US troops in Iraq.

But as he tries
to build pressure on Democrats to help fund the border wall he sees as an
urgent priority - threatening even to close the border if no deal is reached -
Democrats appear adamant in their refusal to pay for a project they view as a
waste of money. Some conservative Republicans, meanwhile, appear equally
determined to press for the wall. Trump has demanded $5 billion for wall
construction - though the White House reportedly has shown flexibility on that
number - while Democrats have offered to spend no more than $1.3 billion for
security measures not including a wall.

A vow to reopen
government

Nancy Pelosi, who
is expected to be House speaker in the new Congress, has vowed to
"swiftly" reopen the government once her Democrats take control of
that chamber from the Republicans on Thursday. She said Democrats "will
govern responsibly in stark contrast to this chaotic White House". Trump
had previously blamed Democrats for policies he said had forced his
administration to separate some children from their parents at the border, a
claim widely seen as specious.

The effects of
the shutdown have been slow to appear - many of the 800,000 government
employees sent home or working without pay would have been off for the holidays
anyway - but once the New Year arrives, pressure will grow. The popular
Smithsonian museums and National Zoo in Washington, for example, said they found
money to stay open through New Year's Day but will close on January 2 if the
standoff continues.

While most of the
US military is unaffected, about 42,000 Coast Guard members are working without
pay. That branch falls under the Department of Homeland Security, not the
Pentagon. This is the third government shutdown of the year, following shorter
closures in January and February. Shutdowns have rarely been popular with the
public. A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that Americans - by 57 to 36
percent - favored Trump seeking compromise rather than insisting on his wall
demand. - AFP