Trump links drugs, violent crime to lack of border wall

WASHINGTON - AP

President Donald Trump again linked illegal immigration along the southern border with drugs and violent crime as he urged Democratic lawmakers to fund his proposed border wall.

In his first national address from the Oval Office, the president gave no indication he was softening his stance that the partial government shutdown would continue without money for the wall.

Trump argued Tuesday night that the wall was needed to resolve what he called a security and humanitarian "crisis."

He addressed the nation as the shutdown stretched through its third week, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay and some congressional Republicans growing increasingly jittery about the impasse.

Trump plans to visit Senate Republicans at the Capitol on Wednesday before meeting with Democratic leaders at the White House.