(CNN) President Donald Trump is threatening to declare a national emergency as a pretext to use Pentagon funding to build a border wall. Democrats should pre-empt Trump by proposing their own solution to end the standoff in Washington. Democrats can seize the border issue away from the Republican Party, just as President Barack Obama took the national security advantage away from the GOP in 2008, without accepting their opponent's reactionary outlook on immigration. The notion that Democrats don't care about border security is pure partisan fiction. Although Democrats in 2019 are more supportive of the humane treatment of people trying to enter at our border, and reject the claim that there is some kind of crisis, mainstream Democrats believe that having a secure border is an essential part of national policy.

Source: CNN January 10, 2019 22:59 UTC