President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to get a wall built on the southern U.S. border to stop illegal immigration, telling the Nevada Republican Party Convention that "it is brutal dealing with the Democrats."
"They want to do nothing," Trump said at the convention's meeting at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. "We are getting the wall built."
President Trump also praised U.S. Border Patrol agents and other administration personnel working on the separation crisis.
"Our people are actually doing a very good job handling a very difficult situation," he said. "But this is a problem that should have been solved years ago."
Trump signed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill in March that included only $1.6 billion already allocated for the wall.
On Thursday, the House postponed a vote to next week on a compromise immigration measure that included $25 billion for Trump's wall.
It also included a path to citizenship for "Dreamers" brought to the country illegally as children and required immigrant kids to be kept with their parents pending deportation decisions.
Lawmakers earlier defeated a harder-line bill endorsed by conservative Republicans that would have reduced visas for legal immigrants and only protected Dreamers from deportation.
Trump has spent the week touting his immigration plan amid the separation crisis and the fallout that led him to sign an executive order Wednesday halting the policy.
The order did not end the administration's "zero-tolerance" policy that criminally prosecutes all adults caught crossing the border illegally.
Families will be kept intact after being taken into custody — and the order expedites their cases and asks the Defense Department to help house them.
However, Trump's directive did not change the plight of as many as 2,300 children taken from their families since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in April that the policy would begin.
Trump tweeted Friday that Republicans should hold off on immigration until after the November elections, saying they should "stop wasting their time" while slamming Democrats for "just playing games" on the issue.
In Las Vegas, President Trump endorsed Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, who is one of the most vulnerable Republicans on this fall's ballot.
He also attended a private fundraiser for Heller, who is facing state Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, and held two roundtables with local leaders.
"He's going to do a tremendous job," Trump said of Heller. "He will be a great senator.
"A little-bit shaky at the beginning, but once we've got in there, rock-solid — and he's been great. He will do the job.
"We are working very hard," Trump added. "Fact is we need more Republicans, because the Democrats are obstructionists.
"They won't vote. They are total obstructions. They don't want to vote.
"Our issue is strong borders, no crime," the president continued. "Their issue is open borders, letting in MS-13 all over our country.
"That's what's going to happen if you listen to them," Trump said. "So, we are being very, very tough at the border."
President Trump also slammed Rosen as "Wacky Jacky" and ripped her for campaigning at the state's Democratic Party Convention in Reno with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
"Wacky Jacky is campaigning with Pocahontas — Can you believe this? — in your state," he said, renewing his attack on Warren. "That's not the senator you want."
Trump also touted his administration's successes, from North Korea to protecting the Second Amendment, and predicted the full demise of Obamacare — despite Arizona Sen. John McCain's early morning vote last July against repealing the healthcare plan.
"He campaigned on repeal and replace," President Trump said, without naming McCain, who is battling brain cancer. "He campaigned, for years, on repeal and replace.
"Then, he walked in, thumbs down.
"It's all right," Trump said, "because we've essentially gutted it anyway."Trump later tweeted about one of his roundtables:
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