It’s been a month since President Trump closed the government offices in order to push funding towards the $5.7 billion dollar border wall. By shutting down the government, it left 800,000 people without paychecks.

I understand the importance of the wall, this country should have borders and we should be able to control who comes in and out, but Trump promising that Mexico will pay for it in his 2016 campaign was all propaganda. Since Mexico refuses to pay for it, (what a surprise) the government was shut down for a month, which affected our workers who were being deprived of a paycheck.

This was an ineffective way to approach the situation. I didn’t see this shutdown being lifted quickly and now, Trump has generously ended the 35-day shutdown only to threaten to shut it down again Feb. 15. The government will continue to fail to come to an agreement and this “pressure” from the government shutdown hardly affects them as the president and Congress are still receiving pay.

This government shutdown has proved that it is ineffective and an immature way to come to an agreement between the two parties. With the collateral damage, it’s affected millions of people who temporarily went without jobs and received no income.

Our Coast Guard was working without pay and so was TSA. People were calling in sick for their TSA positions so that they could pick up another job. CNN recently had the headline of, ”Delta passenger who carried a firearm through TSA screening.” According to the Washington Post the Coast Guard, “intercepted 209,000 kilograms of cocaine at sea in 2018.” Without Coast Guard and airport services being paid, how do we expect them to do their job thoroughly and protect our borders? Seems ironic that in order to fund protection along our southern border with a wall, we leave our seas and air vulnerable.

Trump said he empathizes with these workers without a paycheck, but he can’t; there are some things multi-billionaires can’t relate to. Government offices need to end the government shutdown for good, not temporarily, and come to an agreement in a more mature and effective way instead of letting the U.S. citizens stand in as the collateral damage and without the fear of another shutdown and another month without a paycheck.