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Mike Pence, Opinion contributor Published 8:00 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2019 | Updated 2:37 p.m. ET Jan. 16, 2019

As the partial government shutdown continues, President Trump tweeted about the new caravan heading for the southern border. Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story. Buzz60

America has a national security and humanitarian crisis at our southern border, and President Donald Trump has promised to end it. Weve already taken important steps, but rather than work with us to make further progress, Democrats in Congress have refused to compromise on the wall, leading to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The American people deserve better. Only the willfully blind or politically blinded could fail to see the scope and scale of this crisis.

The facts speak for themselves. Over the past threemonths, an average of 2,000 illegal and inadmissible migrants have arrived at our southern border every day.Today, the majority of illegal immigrants encountered by Customs and Border Protection are families and children. Last month, CBP apprehended nearly 40 percentmore unaccompanied children and groups claiming to be families than in May 2014, which President Barack Obama describedas a humanitarian crisis.

Vice President Mike Pence(Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

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Then, as now, the flood of illegal traffic brings with it a deluge of drugs, criminalsand violence. Over the past twoyears, CBP hasarrested thousands of criminalsat the southern border. In 2018, across the entire southwest border,CBP also seized over827,000 pounds of drugs, including more than100,000 pounds of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroinand fentanyl, primarily at points of entry.

These criminals and these drugs shatter American homes and steal American lives. Our hearts grieve for the families of the300 Americans who die every single week from overdoses involving heroin, nearly90 percent of which enters the country from across our southern border.

And its not just Americans who suffer. According to Doctors Without Borders, 70 percentof illegal immigrants report being victims of violence along the journey at the hands of human traffickers, drug smugglersand vicious gangs. About a third of women are sexually assaulted on their way to America.

The courageous men and women of law enforcement are fighting tirelessly to protect our nation from these threats and rescue migrants in danger. They also face serious hazards themselves. Assaults on CBP officers increased by 46 percentin 2017, andattacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are at their highest level inseven years.

The American people caught a tragic glimpse of this danger the day after Christmas, when a police officer in California a legal immigrant was murdered by an illegal immigrant.

President Trump and I recognize that border security is national security. Thats why this president has made it a priority to end this crisis, secure our border, build a wall, and protect the American people.

Since even before this partial government shutdown began, our administration has attempted to work with Democrats in good faith. Last week, we proposed a compromise that contains both Republican and Democratic priorities, including the presidents request for $5.7 billion to fund a steel barrier on the southern border and more than $7 billion to address a wide variety of security and humanitarian needs, many of which have been long supported by both parties in Congress.

But the American people deserve to know: Democrats refuse to negotiate on building the wall.

Even as we face a crisis on our southern border, and as 800,000 federal workers go without paychecks, Democrats in Congress have been unwilling to seriously discuss even partial wall funding. President Trump and our administration will not be deterred by the Democrats' obstruction. The American people want to see action, and we intend to deliver.

Its time for Democrats in Congress to do their job, negotiate in good faith, and reach an agreement that ends the humanitarian and security crisis at our border and reopens the government. The American people deserve nothing less.

Mike Pence is vice president of the United States. Follow him on Twitter:@VP

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Mike Pence: Democrats refuse to compromise on border wall

Karen Pence, wife of VP Mike Pence since 1985, said Tuesday that shes excited to get back to doing what she loves to do teach!

What the second lady didnt mention is shell be working under a strict biblical morality policy, which is pretty specific about whos allowed at the school.

Heres a snippet from the application:

The school also asks applicants to pledge to live a personal life of moral purity by signing off on sections, including one that says God intended sexual acts occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other.

Those are just some of the guidelines laid out by Immanuel Christian School, a private K-8 school just outside of Washington, D.C., where Pence had previously worked for many years.

Perhaps this shouldnt come as a surprise, considering the Pences have long been known for their staunch religious convictions.

Regardless, her decision was widely criticized.

Why not teach at a school that welcomes everyone, instead of choosing one that wont serve LGBTQ kids, kids of LGBTQ parents? JoDee Winterhof of the Human Rights Campaign told HuffPost in a statement. The Pences never seem to miss an opportunity to show their public service only extends to some.

More of the same on Twitter:

Kara Brooks, a spokeswoman for Pence, responded to the backlash.

Its absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school, and the schools religious beliefs, are under attack, Brooks told HuffPo in a statement.

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Mike Pences wife just got a job at a school banning gay ...

Vice President Mike Pence issued a statement Wednesday that sought to clarify remarks he delivered earlier in the day in which he claimed that ISIS has been defeated several hours after the radical Islamic group set off a bomb that killed at least two U.S. service members and two American civilians in Syria. More than a dozen people died in the attack.

In a speech at the U.S. State Department Wednesday morning, Pence credited President Trump and the U.S. military with vanquishing Islamic State terrorists in Syria.

Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we are now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners, Pence said, And we are bringing our troops home. The caliphate has crumbled, and ISIS has been defeated.

Before Pence delivered that assessment, he had been briefed on the deadly bomb attack, for which ISIS quickly claimed responsibility, in the northern city of Manbij. Hours after his speech, the vice president issued a statement about the bombing that stopped short of an outright declaration of victory.

Vice President Mike Pence. (Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP)

President Trump and I condemn the terrorist attack in Syria that claimed American lives and our hearts are with the loved ones of the fallen. We honor their memory and we will never forget their service and sacrifice, Pence said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. Thanks to the courage of our Armed Forces, we have crushed the ISIS caliphate and devastated its capabilities. As we begin to bring our troops home, the American people can be assured, for the sake of our soldiers, their families, and our nation, we will never allow the remnants of ISIS to reestablish their evil and murderous caliphate not now, not ever.

By claiming to have crushed the ISIS caliphate the quasi-state covering parts of Iraq and Syria that the group controlled for several years Pence emphasized the part of the allied effort that has been successful, without mentioning that the group still exists as an underground army of terrorists, capable of pulling off deadly attacks.

In explaining his decision in December to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, Trump declared, We have won against ISIS.

Weve beaten them, and weve beaten them badly, Trump said. Weve taken back the land and now its time for our troops to come back home.

According to Pentagon estimates, ISIS can still claim 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned in protest over Trumps plan to remove the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops stationed in Syria, but in his speech at the State Department, Pence said that goal remained on track.

Some Republicans,including Trumps strident supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham, have pushed back against the presidents plan.

My concern by the statements made by President Trump is that you have set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy were fighting, Graham said Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

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Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo belong to a doomsday cult -- and may be trying to bring on the apocalypse (function(){ var zergnet = document.createElement('script'); zergnet.type = 'text/javascript'; zergnet.async = true; zergnet.src = (document.location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//www.zergnet.com/zerg.js?id=63310'; var znscr = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; znscr.parentNode.insertBefore(zergnet, znscr) })(); "+"ipt>";var zergnet_below_content_code = "(function(){ var zergnet = document.createElement('script'); zergnet.type = 'text/javascript'; zergnet.async = true; zergnet.src = (document.location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//www.zergnet.com/zerg.js?id=65997'; var znscr = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; znscr.parentNode.insertBefore(zergnet, znscr) })(); "+"ipt>";var survey_code = "";var connatix_in_content_code = '';var ora_below_content_code = "";//console.log( "lazy load connatix in content" ); jQuery('#story-page-embedded-after2-ad').html( connatix_in_content_code );//console.log( "lazy load ora below content" ); jQuery('#oratv-desktop-container').html( ora_below_content_code );console.log( "lazy load zergnet below_content" );jQuery('#zergnet-below-content-ll-target').html( zergnet_below_content_code );console.log( "lazy load zergnet sidebar" );jQuery('#zergnet_lazy_target').html( zergnet_sidebar_code );console.log( "lazy load below content survey" );jQuery('#below-comment-survey').html( survey_code);}); Google+

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Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday struggled to back President Donald Trumps lie that former presidents have affirmed their support for his proposed border wall, claiming that Trump meant that they support border security.

On Friday, Trump falsely boasted that his predecessors have told me that we should have built the wall.

This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me, and they all know it, he said during a news conference. Some of them have told me that we should have done it.

But all four living former presidents have denied that they ever spoke to Trump about the wall or have made it clear they do not support Trumps long-promised proposal.

Pressed by NBC News Hallie Jackson in an interview Tuesday, Pence hesitated, before attempting to claim that the president meant that it had been his impression and that he meant the importance of border security.

I know the president has said that that was his impression from previous administrations, previous presidents, Pence said. I know Ive seen clips of previous presidents talking about the importance of border security, the importance of addressing the issue of illegal immigration.

None of the living former presidents has explicitly stated any support for the wall itself, contrary to Trumps brag on Friday.

The vice presidents attempted defense was similar to a statement from an administration official to The New York Times on Monday, in response to all of Trumps living predecessors contradicting Trumps false claim.

The official said that Trump might have been referring to public comments made by previous presidents on behalf of border security, though not the wall specifically or directly to Mr. Trump, The Times reported.

Pence gave several interviews Tuesday morning attempting to bolster Trump ahead of the presidentsprimetime address on the border wall.

He similarly struggled to defend Trumps repeated lies about immigration and the border, including the false claim about the former presidents, in an interview with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl.

How can the president be, how can his word be trusted on this, when he has said so many things that are just not true about this crisis? Karl asked.

Pence deflected by saying that the American people arent as concerned about the political debate.

This story has been updated with more comments from Pence.

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Mike Pence Struggles To Defend Trump's Lie That Past Presidents Support ...