The numbers are staggering and hard to comprehend. During fiscal-year 2018 some 521,000 illegal immigrants were arrested between ports-of-entry all along the Mexico-USA border from California to Texas. That figure averages out to 43,416 arrests per month or 1,427 arrests per day, according to figures released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Add to that figure another 123,228 arrests for the first two-months of fiscal-year 2019 – October and November. Due to the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government arrest figures for December were unavailable, said the DHS website.

So for the past 14-months the arrests have swelled to 644,228. Within this number are thousands of criminals trying to enter the United States of America illegally plus thousands of illegal migrants from Mexico, Central America, plus thousands more from South America, Europe, the Mid-East and Africa. This is an unprecedented assault upon the Mexico/USA border and the arrest figures prove it.

But the Washington Democrats — this time around — are bucking the demand from President Donald Trump for $5-billion in taxpayer funds for 2019 to increase border security and build new sections of a physical barrier or wall along those areas where the illegals keep attempting to enter the USA illegally. This situation is exactly what the ongoing government shutdown is all about.

On Wednesday, President Trump summoned legislative leaders from both parties to the White House Situation Room for a briefing from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the border situation. Afterwards, the Democrats including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY), were not moved by the briefing in the least and they failed to publicly recognize the real-life situation going on at the border. They couldn’t have cared less about more than 644,000 arrests in 14 months and the strain this situation puts on federal Border Agents, local law enforcement agencies and the 5,000 or so U.S. Army troops the president sent to the border late last year.

With Pelosi set to be the next Speaker of the House, she has already said the U.S. House of Representatives will pass a spending measure right away and reopen the government without the $5-billion for the border wall.

“We can go through the back and forth. No. How many more times can we say no? Nothing for the wall,” Pelosi said in a Wednesday NBC News interview.

But what the U.S. House passes must be sent to the U.S. Senate for their approval or rejection then signed into law by President Trump who has dug in deep on keeping the government shutdown going until he gets the funding he wants to strengthen the southern border.

The president will not sign any 2019 fiscal-year spending bill without the$5-billion that the Democrats are refusing to negotiate on. They will not give President Trump any legislative victory and the standoff will surely continue as the president remains steadfast to improve the border situation in the name of national defense.

“It’s too important a subject to walk away from,” President Trump said during a cabinet meeting at the White House prior to the Situation Room briefing.

2019 is quickly shaping up as another year of Washington gridlock. The new Democratic control of the U.S. House will surely mean President Trump’s “America First” Agenda will be attacked from every possible direction as they distance themselves as far from President Trump as they can get. The Democrats don’t give a damn about the border situation and the agony of thousands of people. All they care about is dumping Trump in 2020 or before.

All we can do is witness this “High Noon”-type Washington drama develop in the days ahead as the border arrests continue to mount and the assault keeps on. Build the wall.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.