President Trump calls for border legislation using 'nuclear option'

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Donald Trump demanded Monday that Congress pass new border legislation using the "Nuclear Option if necessary" to muscle it through the Senate — a drastic change in rules the Republican leader has previously dismissed.

President Trump tweeted that the U.S. must build a border wall, but argued that "Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!" He also said that a deal to help "Dreamer" immigrants is "dead because the Democrats didn't care or act."

President Trump has previously called for the "nuclear option" — changing Senate rules to end the filibuster. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has dismissed that option in the past, saying Republicans will welcome the filibuster if they return to being the Senate minority.

The White House did not immediately answer questions about President Trump's tweets. The $1.3 trillion funding package Congress passed last month included $1.6 billion in border wall spending. But much of that money can only be used to repair existing segments, not build new sections. Congress also put restrictions on the types of barriers that can be built.

President Trump began tweeting over the weekend on immigration from Florida, threatening to pull out of a free trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the U.S. The U.S., Canada and Mexico are participating in tense negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement at Trump's insistence.

He also claimed that people are flowing over the border "trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!"

It was not immediately clear what President Trump was referring to when he said people are coming to take advantage of the program

Former President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to provide temporary protection and work permits to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally after being brought here as children. The Obama administration allowed signups during a set period of time, and the program is closed to new entrants.

President Trump ended the program last year, but gave Congress six months to pass legislation enshrining it. A deal has so far proved elusive and President Trump has blamed Democrats.

The Department of Homeland Security is not issuing new permits, though existing ones can be renewed.

Proposed DACA deals crafted by lawmakers and rejected by President Trump also were not open to new participants.

President Trump did not explain what he meant when questioned by reporters as he entered the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea for an Easter Sunday service on Sunday, but again blamed Democrats for failing to protect the "Dreamers."

"The Democrats have really let them down," he added during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, adding: "It's a shame."

President Trump's comments also ignore the fact that the DACA solution he proposed mustered only 39 votes in the Senate, not enough to pass even if the Senate did approve the nuclear option. Meanwhile, the bipartisan option the White House vigorously lobbied against did gain a majority of votes, but fell six votes shy of the 60 needed to advance under Senate rules.

President Trump promised during the 2016 presidential campaign to build a Southern border wall to stop illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico, but Congress has frustrated him by not moving as quickly as he wants to provide money for construction.

The president also complained on Twitter that border patrol agents can't do their jobs properly because of "ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws" that allow people caught for being in the country illegally to be released while they await a hearing before a federal immigration judge.

President Trump tweeted that the situation is "Getting more dangerous" and "Caravans" are coming.

The president's tweets came after Fox News' "Fox & Friends" reported early Sunday on what it said is a group of 1,200 immigrants, mostly from Honduras, headed to the U.S.

About 1,100 migrants, many from Honduras, have been marching in a caravan along roadsides and train tracks in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca.

These "Stations of the Cross" migrant caravans have been held in southern Mexico for at least the last five years. They began as short processions of migrants, some dressed in biblical garb and carrying crosses, as an Easter-season protest against the kidnappings, extortion, beatings and killings suffered by many Central American migrants as they cross Mexico.

Individuals in the caravans often try to reach the U.S. border, but usually not as part of the caravan. The caravans usually don't proceed much farther north than the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. The current march is scheduled to end this month with a conference on migration issues in the central Mexican state of Puebla, east of Mexico City.

The Fox headline was "Caravan of illegal immigrants headed to U.S." The president is known to watch the cable TV program in the morning.

Brandon Judd, leader of the union representing border patrol agents, predicted on "Fox & Friends" that those in the caravan would create havoc and chaos in the U.S. as they wait for what he described as immigration reform. Judd also said Congress needs to pass tougher laws, an idea President Trump appeared to echo, and create more bed space for immigration authorities to house people.

Mexico routinely stops and deports undocumented Central Americans, sometimes in numbers that rival those of the United States. Deportations of foreigners dropped from 176,726 in 2015 to 76,433 in 2017, in part because fewer were believed to have come to Mexico, and more were requesting asylum in Mexico.