During the Democratic Debate, Trump Vetoed a Measure to Block Funding for Border Wall

Meanwhile, there wasn’t a single question on immigration.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

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On Tuesday evening, as 12 Democratic presidential hopefuls debated policy ideas about healthcare, gun control measures, and protecting reproductive rights, President Donald Trump once again vetoed legislation that would end his declaration of a national emergency at the southern border and prevent him from building his wall. 

It’s the sixth veto of Trump’s presidency and comes seven months after he first vetoed a similar measure in March, which had been passed by the Senate in a 59-41 vote, with twelve Republicans siding with Democrats. This bill would have halted the president’s emergency declaration to funnel $3.6 billion in Defense Department funding to build more sections of his wall at the Southern border; the bill the president vetoed last night was nearly identical. “In short, the situation on our southern border remains a national emergency, and our Armed Forces are still needed to help confront it,” Trump wrote in his message to the Senate Tuesday just after 9 p.m., an hour into the Democratic debate. Congress could override the President’s veto with a two-thirds majority of votes in the Senate, but that is unlikely to occur, the New York Times reports.

Building a wall at the southern border has long been a drawn-out battle at the center of Trump’s aggressive and contentious crackdown on immigration reform. And Democrats have fought tooth and nail throughout Trump’s presidency to block his efforts to succeed in that plan, as well as to put a halt to his detention of refugees and his controversial family separation policy.

But during Tuesday’s three-hour Democratic presidential debate, there wasn’t a single question about immigration. Even some of the candidates later expressed disappointment with how this subject, as well as ones on climate change and LBGTQ, were not part of the discussion.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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