President Donald Trump has sent a letter to congressional members to discuss illegal immigration and the importance of border security.

Trump presented statistical data about security and humanitarian crises at the Southern Border in the letter, according to a White House news release posted Friday.

He noted that the Customs and Border Protection and its agents arrested 17K individuals with existing criminal records in fiscal 2018 and that immigration courts now have a backlog of 800K cases.

“Effective border security must dramatically reduce the entry of illegal immigrants, criminals, and drugs; it must keep out terrorists, public safety threats, and those otherwise inadmissible under U.S. law; and it must ensure that those who do enter without legal permission can be promptly and safely returned home,” Trump noted.

He called on Congress to support the proposed border wall, eliminate the Flores Settlement Agreement and amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to facilitate the return of smuggled minors into their countries.
 

The federal government’s partial shutdown is slated to run for a third week, affecting around 800,000 government employees and resulting in potential cash-flow deficit for contractors, Federal Times reported Friday.

Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council, said a cash-flow shortage will result from contractors not getting paid by the government despite having workers needing to perform services under contract. Chvotkin noted that the financial impact of the shutdown will vary depending on the size and cash reserves of affected contractors, with small businesses facing greater risk.

Previously, the federal government experienced a 16-day shutdown in 2013 where some contractor employees were laid off and furloughed workers were not paid during or after the shutdown, the Government Accountability Office said in a report. Senate Democrats have pointed out that thousands of employees from the State Department, Internal Revenue Service and Department of Agriculture are working without pay.

House Democrats passed two bills this week in a bid to end the partial government shutdown without funding President Trump’s border wall, New York Post reported Thursday.

One bill would provide temporary budgeting to eight of the nine closed agencies until September, while another would fund the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 8. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted the chamber will not support construction of Trump’s wall.

“We’re not doing a wall,” Pelosi said. “The fact is a wall is an immorality. It’s not who we are as a nation.” Without the wall’s funding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper chamber will not “waste its time” to pass the House proposal, CNBC reported Thursday. 

White House issued a statement on Thursday warning that Trump’s advisers would recommend that the president veto the Democratic bills. The president “cannot accept legislation that provides unnecessary funding for wasteful programs while ignoring the nation’s border security needs,” the White House said. Bipartisan congressional leaders expect to meet with White House officials on Friday to discuss Trump’s requested $5B funding for the border wall.

The U.S. Navy has tested a new Littoral Combat Group concept for a coordinated deployment of disaggregated forces, USNI News reported Thursday. 

In late 2018, the service branch deployed San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Somerset along with Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer to support ground forces in South America. The U.S. 3rd Fleet said the Littoral Combat Group 1 tested the command and control of assets under a single commander. The deployment enabled the Navy to learn how attack and transport ships can support ground forces in certain operations, such as law enforcement detachment and humanitarian assistance.  
The Navy plans to use the lessons learned from the test to create a proposal to use the LCG concept in future operations. The service is also working on how the Marine Corps can battle for sea control from ashore by coordinating submarines, surface ships and ground forces.