Details about Monday night’s border security deal are slowly leaking out. It appears that House and Senate negotiators agreed to $1.4 billion for an additional 55 miles of border barriers, while funding for detention beds essentially remains at current levels. 

Speaking to reporters at the White House yesterday afternoon, President Trump said this:

“I am extremely unhappy with what the Democrats have given us. It’s sad. They’re doing the country no favors.  They’re hurting our country very badly.  But we certainly don’t want to see a shutdown.”

I can assure you that the president is not the only one unhappy with this deal.

At his El Paso rally Monday night, Trump said that whatever the politicians in Congress do, the wall will be built. And he’s clearly going to have to do it on his own because he’s getting virtually no help.

As you know, Democrats control the House and they are following orders from Nancy Pelosi. Republicans control the Senate and the president has told them what he wants. 

But what does this deal say about the strength and commitment of GOP negotiators that $1.4 billion was the best they could come up with? 

Here’s my explanation: The left is totally committed to open borders and to transforming America demographically, while too many establishment Republicans are not committed to securing the border.

If you doubt the left’s commitment to open borders, here’s what Beto O'Rourke said at an anti-Trump protest Monday night: “Walls do not save lives. They end lives." So I expect every rich liberal will immediately tear down the walls and gates around their homes. 

The left has another big advantage. It is willing to force another shutdown knowing a compliant media will blame everything on Trump.

Here’s the bottom line that you should never forget: Donald Trump wants to secure the border. Progressives do not. 

We just went through the longest government shutdown ever because the left refused to provide a mere $5.7 billion — less than we spend in one month on food stamps — for border security. That’s all you need to know.

I can see the president grudgingly accepting this deal as the best he can get for now, while constantly reminding the American people about how little progressives care about border security. And I can also see him ordering his cabinet to pursue every legal option to find the authority and additional resources necessary to get the job done. 

Anti-Semitism In Congress

I really hope this does not become a regular item. Sadly, there has been a lot to say about this disturbing topic in recent days.

As we noted yesterday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) ignited yet another controversy over another round of anti-Semitic tweets. It certainly did not help her cause that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and former KKK leader David Duke rushed to justify her attack on Israel and Jews.

In Omar’s defense, she tried to apologize, saying that she is "grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes." 

But why is such education even necessary?

Meanwhile, we now know that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) once wrote a column for the Final Call, "the official communications organ of the Nation of Islam.” As you know, the Nation of Islam is run by America’s leading anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan, who has referred to Jews as “satanic” and praised Adolf Hitler.

This gets me back to a key issue: How did Congresswomen Omar and Tlaib rise up through the political ranks in their respective states not knowing that anti-Semitic language and associating with rabid anti-Semites were unacceptable?

Surely Omar didn’t start spouting this anti-Semitism only after she was elected to Congress. But what does it say about large swaths of the progressive movement in Michigan and Minnesota that such candidates could successfully emerge from numerous elections? Did anyone warn them about their bigotry?

Unfortunately, what is more likely is that they were getting nothing but encouragement as they built careers on raw anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.

Several years ago, the Anti-Defamation League conducted a massive survey measuring anti-Semitic attitudes around the world. As you are no doubt aware, anti-Semitism is rampant in Muslim nations throughout the Middle East and Africa. 

Now here’s a sad fact: There are whole neighborhoods in Minneapolis’ “Little Mogadishu” where people think just like Omar. In fact, the area has been a well-known hotbed of radical Islamic extremism.

Thank you, advocates of open borders and mass migration, for importing more hate into our country.

Fighting For Faith

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom met Monday. We heard from the wife of a Saudi man who has been in prison for seven years because he advocated for religious freedom in the kingdom. 

In recent days, we have talked with dozens of Chinese church leaders who have told us about government internment camps not only for Muslims but for Christians too. 

They told us that there are 100 million Chinese men who can’t find wives because of the shortage of women created by the communist regime’s one child policy. But if men join the Communist Party they are allowed to go to the internment camps to pick out a Christian woman as a wife. 

I attended additional meetings yesterday on Capitol Hill. Pastor John Hagee, Sandy Hagee and I, representing Christians United for Israel, met with Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback to discuss ways to combat Christian persecution and the threat of growing anti-Semitism.

Baby Saved

Here’s a good news story: A newborn baby girl was found in the middle of a California road in near-freezing temperatures Monday morning. Fortunately, newspaper carrier Aurelio Fuentes happened to be on his morning route not long after the baby was abandoned. 

Fuentes dialed 911 and held her until authorities arrived. She is expected to make a full recovery. 

Fuentes told reporters that he was disturbed thinking about what might happened to the little girl. Cars often speed down the road. “What if a coyote had found the infant first,” he asked. 

Worse yet, what if the governor of Virginia had found her?!