President Donald Trump is staying on offense in regard to trying to secure funding for a border wall, saying Monday that Democrats are in favor of keeping criminal illegal aliens in the United States.
Trump spoke on the subject while meeting with a group of sheriffs in the White House.
"These are people that kidnap people. The Democrats want them to come into our society. I don't think so," Trump said after rattling off crime statistics committed by illegals who stay in the U.S. while their immigration cases play out.
Trump was scheduled to travel to El Paso, Texas, on Monday evening to deliver a border security speech.
"We need a wall, and all of the other things are nice to have, but without a wall it's not going to work," Trump said with the group of sheriffs. "We can have technology. We can have beautiful drones flying all over the place. But it doesn't work without the wall."
Lawmakers are working to put together a spending bill that would keep the Department of Homeland Security open after Friday. Trump has demanded money to construct a border wall between the United States and Mexico be included, a point of contention between himself and Democrats.