House GOP urges Democrats to stand behind Trump's border wall funding

Republican House leaders have lobbied Democrats to endorse President Trump's $ 5 billion request to fund the wall of his border, as lawmakers begin a lame session in which priority absolute was to avoid a partial closure of the government.

Congress must pass several spending bills to avoid closure, and Trump insists that funding for his border wall be included in this legislation. At a meeting with the press this morning, House of Republican leaders said supporting this request was an important security issue.

"I hope Democrats can find a way to put politics aside," said Representative Kevin McCarthy, who will become Speaker of the House at the next convention. "Everyone realizes that our immigration system is down and that we can solve this problem once and for all."

"We hope that after the elections, Democrats will realize that a secure border should not be a Republican thing, nor a Democratic thing," said outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Congress must act seven bills of expenditure by December 7, financing in particular homeland security, the Department of Justice and the State Department. Five of the 12 annual spending bills have already been passed by the House of Commons and the Senate and signed by the Speaker. They made it possible to finance the operations of these departments until September 2019.

"We need border security in this country, and if that meant a closure, I would be quite willing to close it," President Trump said in an interview with Politico on Tuesday.

In addition to funding the border wall, Ryan said Congress should use the last weeks of Congress to pass an agricultural bill and reform the criminal justice system.

"We want to reform our criminal justice system," said Ryan.

The outcome of criminal justice reform Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not pledged to put it to a vote, and some Republicans still want the measure to be changed.