COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — A tweet from President Donald Trump Wednesday morning read "Build A Wall & Crime Will Fall."
Scott Lepore, a past president of the Collier County Republican Club, was one of about two hundred people who took part in a conference call with Trump the same day. The topic? Border security.
"Border security is his number one priority," Lepore said. "The biggest thing I got out of his message is that Donald Trump is not backing down, and he's not going to change his mind about wanting to build the border wall."
But he said some of the most eye-opening comments during the call came from an Arizona sheriff who said that his deputies have arrested people from fifty-one different countries at the border with Mexico.
"We have people from the Middle East, people from the continent of Africa, and people from Europe who are trying to get into the United States illegally, and they're crossing by the southern border," Lepore said. "That represents a safety issue for the United States."
But the wall is a contentious issue - especially during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Trump wants more than five billion dollars to build the wall.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's latest offer sought to reopen most federal agencies and secure one billion dollars for border security - but not for a wall.
"While people argue that the wall is not the best solution, it is a solution, and it definitely will diminish crime," Lepore said.
