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WASHINGTON, Dec. 28-- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to close the southern border amid an ongoing partial government shutdown, resuming his push for the funding of a long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. "We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with," Trump tweeted Friday morning. "We build a Wall or close the Southern Border," the president said, accusing Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador of "taking advantage" of his country for years. "No end in sight to the President's government shutdown," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois tweeted Thursday. "He's taken our government hostage over his outrageous demand for a $5 billion border wall that would be both wasteful and ineffective." Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi, tweeted Thursday, "Democrats have offered Republicans three options to re-open government that all include funding for strong, sensible, and effective border security - but not the President's immoral, ineffective and expensive wall." The U.S. Senate convened briefly Thursday afternoon before adjourning until next week, with no signs of a deal to end the budget impasse that has shut down a quarter of the federal government. The upper chamber will convene on Monday, Dec. 31, for a pro forma session only, and then return to the Capitol Hill to renew budget deliberations on Wednesday, Jan. 2, a day before Democrats are set to take control of the House. | 
