Sen. Amy Klobuchar criticized President Donald Trump for "weaponizing" and "politicizing" comprehensive immigration reform, telling ABC’s "This Week" on Sunday that "he has gut-punched" a Congress that has tried to find solutions to the problem.
"We have the will to put the money at the border for better security and combine it with some sensible reforms, including things like a path to citizenship, things like making sure that we have workers on our fields and in our factories that we need," the Minnesota Democrat said.
Klobuchar stressed that "we have tried to negotiate with him but he won’t take yes for an answer," adding that "I was in that group, a small group of us that were working to find a way out with border money as well as making sure that we protected the Dreamers, something a vast majority of Americans supported."
The senator’s comments came after a tweet by Trump earlier in the day in which he blamed Democrats for the increasing number of Central American migrants trying to get into the U.S.
"Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S. No longer)," Trump wrote. "Dems created this problem. No crossings!"
Trump and Congress are faced with an impending clash over funding for a border wall. The president has not ruled out shutting down the government if that money is not included in a must-pass government funding measure.