LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump returns to California on Friday for a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border and a fundraiser in Los Angeles as the state's Republican Party struggles on many fronts. "The Republican Party has been a bad brand name in California politics for a decade, and I think Donald Trump made it a toxic brand," said Thad Kousser, political science chair at the University of California, San Diego. "The clearest flash point for this is in immigration and also the environment." For one, Republicans lost seven seats in the 2018 congressional midterm elections and the GOP has seen its voter registration decline in historic strongholds of the state, including Orange County — once considered a bastion of conservatism. Also, some Republican House incumbents and challengers in the recent midterms sought to distance themselves from Trump on immigration and offshore oil drilling, among other issues. But the state GOP is plotting a comeback in 2020, even using the Green New Deal against Democrats. "California Republicans are conflicted about Trump," said Dan Schnur, a professor of political communications at the University of Southern California and a former longtime GOP strategist who is now an independent. "He still has a very strong and very committed core base of support here. But a lot of elected officeholders are nervous about him because he's so unpopular here." A poll conducted last month by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank, showed only 29 percent of California adults approve of Trump's job performance as president. Yet among California Republicans, the PPIC polling showed Trump enjoys about 75 percent support. That said, just 27 percent of independents and a mere 7 percent of Democrats approve of how the GOP president is handling his job. "We support the president and are glad he's coming to Los Angeles," said Eric Early, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Republican Party. "We have lots of policies of the president's that we support." Still, the anti-Trump vote in 2018 also may have helped Democrats secure a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature. As of Feb. 10, only 23.5 percent of California registered voters were Republican, down from 26 percent just before Trump was elected president. Those registered as "no party preference" is 28 percent, surpassing the GOP and second to Democrats' 43 percent. "I don't see a path to the numbers coming back to California until Trump is out of office," said Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant who served in the administration of former California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Stutzman said Trump represents "everything that's opposite" to broaden the party, including being able to reach voters who are younger and more ethnically diverse. On Friday, Trump is expected to be in the LA area for a fundraiser where dinner is $15,000 per person or $50,000 for the chance to get a picture with the president. There's also $150,000 tickets for those with deep pockets to be part of the roundtable at the private event, NBC Los Angeles reported Tuesday. Prior to the fundraiser, Trump is scheduled to visit Calexico, a town about 120 miles east of San Diego to see a new 30-foot-tall section of the border wall. The visit comes after Trump threatened on Twitter to shut down the entire U.S.-Mexico border due to alleged immigration "loopholes" he wants Congress to fix. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113437257493561344 "Not everybody is happy with everything he does on Twitter, but the actions speak dramatically louder than words," said Shawn Steel, the state's Republican National Committee member. Immigration is a hot-button issue in California that divides the electorate like few others. With a population of nearly 40 million people, California has more than 10 million foreign-born residents — more than any other state. "Most Californians believe that immigrants are a benefit to the state," said Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the PPIC. "Californians have been against building a wall, and in our latest poll most Californians were opposed to the president calling a national emergency in order to build a wall." Trump has taken a swipe several times as president against California Democratic governors, first Jerry Brown and more recently "grandstanding" Gavin Newsom for asylum shelters and scaling back the state's "so-called Fast Train, which is $Billions over budget & in total disarray." Trump also threatened to cut off funding for wildfire relief in the state. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1104499701016133634 For his part, Newsom has slammed Trump for "manufacturing a crisis and declaring a made-up 'national emergency'" at the border and admonished the president for threatening to cut off wildfire funding. "Disasters and recovery are no time for politics," he said in a tweet. Tweet The Trump administration is suing California over its so-called sanctuary state laws that are designed to protect undocumented immigrants. The Trump administration and California are fighting over other issues, including health care, fracking, climate change and the census citizenship question. All told, there are at least 48 lawsuits filed against the administration by the Democratic-led state. "Regardless of how you feel about the current administration, the reality is that Sacramento must have a cooperative relationship with the federal government," California Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron said in a statement to CNBC. "From disaster relief funding to infrastructure projects, we have to work with our federal counterparts and California Democrats' practice of picking fights with the president at every opportunity doesn't help anything."<doc-sep>President Donald Trump brought his insistent push for a hardened border with Mexico to Calexico Friday, pointing to an “absolute emergency” on the international boundary and warning that the asylum system drawing a surge of migrants to the U.S. was “full.” “We can’t take anymore, folks,” Trump told a gathering of Border Patrol agents, federal officials, lawmakers and reporters gathered for a roundtable discussion at the Border Patrol station. One after another during the visit, a select group of local Border Patrol agents, immigration officials, and sheriffs from around the West weighed in on their experiences patrolling the border and beyond — from drug smugglers and human traffickers to asylum-seeking families to bodies abandoned in the desert. “We are not prepared to deal with the amount of people, families, children and now organized caravans coming across our border today,” said El Centro’s Border Patrol Chief Gloria Chavez. “Our resources are extremely strained. Our agents are being stretched in so many different directions.” She and others repeatedly thanked the president for building two miles of replacement fencing in the desert town recently, even presenting Trump with a chunk of steel from the project as a memento. Trump said he would display it in the Oval Office. Advertisement The see-through bollard fencing, at 30 feet high, was held up as the star of the visit. After the roundtable, Trump headed for the border to get a first-hand look at the barrier — “the first section of President Trump’s border wall,” according to an official plaque welded to it. The replacement fencing had been planned by previous administrations but funded under Trump’s first year in office and completed late last year. “It looks great,” said Trump, whose first visit to the California border was one year ago to view wall prototypes in Otay Mesa. “It’s better and much more effective than the previous wall. It’s pretty sharp up top, too. If you want to climb that you deserve whatever you can get.” Chavez said that most of the sector’s 58 miles of border barrier are constructed of inferior Vietnam-era landing mat that is ineffective at keeping out intrepid crossers. She said construction on an additional 11 miles is expected to begin in June. With no funding for his envisioned wall, Trump has taken to declaring a national emergency to secure the money. “We expect to have close to 400 miles done within about two years,” he said. He added that it would take a “Mount Everest climber” to cross once the wall is complete. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said he started his career in the El Centro sector and admonished Democrats who are blocking efforts to construct the wall. “For those congressmen who want to be obstructionists, if you don’t want to be part of the solution, at least get out of our way, let your administration do its work.” The visit comes as record numbers of asylum-seeking families from Central America are crossing into the U.S., with Texas’s Rio Grande sector seeing the heaviest traffic. In February, Border Patrol apprehended 66,450 migrants along the southwest border; just over half of them were part of a family unit, according to the agency. The El Centro sector, which includes Calexico, accounted for 3,319 of those arrests, with a third coming as part of a family. While March apprehension tallies aren’t to be released until Monday, officials have projected the mark to approach 100,000. To compare, Border Patrol arrested 37,390 last March. As many as 750 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers across the country have been redeployed to areas most hard hit to help process the families. CBP has warned that the staffing shift will be felt at ports of entry, including at Otay Mesa’s commercial trucking facility where 10 lanes have been reduced to eight indefinitely. Some Border Patrol highway checkpoints have also been shuttered in Texas due to manpower needs. Agent Lucio Gonzalez echoed the message that agents are being pulled away to transport and process arriving families. “That’s 60 agents that can and should be controlling our border,” he told Trump, adding that the sector was operating at 300 agents under the allocated amount. He noted the difficulty of verifying family claims with consulates at the rate people are arriving. The sector chief earlier told the president that in fiscal 2019 alone, agents had discovered 193 “fake families,” or people teaming up with children so they can be released into the community rather than be detained. “We’ll take care of it,” Trump assured Gonzalez. The whirlwind trip — roughly 3 ½ hours from wheels down to wheels up at nearby Naval Air Facility El Centro — punctuated an especially anxious week that began with his threats to close the southern border, then de-escalated with an ultimatum that gives Mexico one year to end the northbound flow of drugs and migrants. Trump pointed to his warning as being effective already. “Mexico has been absolutely terrific for the last four days. They’re apprehending everybody,” he told reporters outside the White House before his take-off to California. “Yesterday they apprehended 1,400 people. The day before was 1,000. And if they apprehend people at their southern border where they don’t have to walk through, that’s a big home run.” Advertisement Trump’s visit to the town of 40,000 residents drew a mix of protest and support. Outside the station, a small crowd of Trump supporters lined the street with their cars, many with American flags flapping in the slight breeze that didn’t do much to stave off the heat of the desert sun. One sign read, “If you build it, they won’t come.” Meanwhile, dozens of protesters gathered downtown, where they marched and chanted “Si se puede” — Yes we can — and “What do we want? Justice!” Nearby, a huge balloon depicting a cartoonish baby Trump flew overhead. The city’s residents were encouraged to wear white signifying the peace of their border community. Suzie Newell, 64, held a small sign with a picture of two hands shaking over a barbed wire fence. The hands are tattooed with the Mexican and American flags. It reads “Two Countries and One community.” A resident of El Centro, a town next to Calexico, she said she came out to oppose closing the border as Trump has threatened to do. “I don’t think he’s thinking about how it’s going to affect both sides,” she said. “It will hurt the economy.” “We have a lot of farm workers who cross the border doing jobs that Americans won’t do,” she added. Newell, who taught as a teacher in Calexico for 24 years, said she didn’t agree with how her border town was being portrayed by Trump. “We don’t have a border problem,” she said. Covered in hearts pinned to her shirt, Frederic Luke, 72, drove all the way from Brawley to demonstrate against Trump and spread a little love in the process. “I didn’t vote for him and I initially gave him a chance,” she said. “But I think he’s incompetent. I’m horrified some people haven’t seen what a fraud he is.” At least two Trump supporters stood by watching for a few minutes: Linda Jung,71, and her husband Keith Wood, 80. “We came to support our wonderful president,” Wood said. The couple said they support a closed border to get Congress to improve immigration laws, Wood said. “If we have to suffer some economic shortcomings, then so be it.” Later, as the demonstration moved near the Calexico airport next to the border fence, Mexicans popped their hands through gaps and took photos. Among then was 49-year-old David Villanueva, who was heading home from work when he started hearing the echoes of chants and people cheering. Asked about the new barrier, topped with concertina wire that has been added in recent months, he looked around. “This thing is massive,” he said. “Feels like a prison wall.” Joe Rivas, 60, a resident of El Centro, who came out to support the president, said the new wall was about safety. “There are too many drugs coming through the country,” he said. Rivas said drugs have taken friends and torn families apart. “People are overdosing everyday,” he said. Still, there was one thing both sides could agree on: no one liked the razor wire. “It looks ugly,” Rivas said. Trump was joined on the visit by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, sporting a new beard, greeted Trump on the tarmac after Air Force One landed shortly before 11:40 a.m. In a video posted to Twitter from the El Centro naval base, Hunter said he was going to thank Trump for his role in getting San Diego-based Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher released from the brig as his case is pending. Gallagher is accused of killing an injured ISIS fighter in Iraq. The congressman also handed the president a letter asking for a pardon for two former Border Patrol agents who were convicted in the shooting an unarmed marijuana smuggler as he tried to run from Texas and into Mexico. Their sentences have already been commuted. A crowd of supporters and military members both welcomed and saw off the president at the air base. He signed “Make America Great Again” hats for them, shook hands and saluted to those in uniform. The president departed El Centro by 3:15 p.m., headed for a fundraiser in Beverly Hills and dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. Los Angeles Times reporter Ruben Vives contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
President Trump argued Friday that the nation is suffering an immigration emergency, visiting the town of Calexico and inspecting a reconstructed border fence a day after he abruptly backed down from his threats to seal the lengthy border between Mexico and the United States. With those threats behind him, Trump shifted gears and promised to construct 400 miles of border wall in the next two years, an unlikely benchmark for a president who has yet to build a single new mile of wall along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. The section Trump visited Friday was a replacement of existing barrier planned during the Obama administration and paid for during Trump’s first year in office. “It’s better, faster and less expensive,” he said as he stood before a slatted 30-foot-high fence. Trump nonetheless conceded that getting money from congressional Democrats for any new wall construction was “like pulling teeth” even as he projected victory in his bitter funding battles with Congress. The trip to California was intended to persuade the public that his declaration of emergency was necessary to circumvent Congress and to combat what the administration calls a national crisis. The Democratic-controlled House challenged the declaration in federal court in Washington even as Trump was in Calexico. “We’re really making progress in letting people know that this is an absolute emergency,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion with local and national officials in Calexico. “It’s a colossal surge and it’s overwhelming our immigration system and we can’t let that happen,” he said. He said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has separately sued Trump over his emergency declaration and said the state’s national guard would not be deployed at the border, is “living in a different world … a dangerous world” and he accused Newsom of creating “lots of problems for the people of California.” Trump, who made his third trip to California since entering the White House, has railed against Mexico for not stopping thousands of Central American families who have crossed Mexico in an effort to seek asylum in the United States. “The system is full, can’t take you anymore,” Trump said, referring to migrants who are seeking asylum or crossing the border illegally. “So turn around. That’s the way it is.” Trump repeated his claims that most asylum seekers are lying about fearing persecution at home. He argued further — without any evidence — that many are gang members who are coached by attorneys and engaged in a “hoax.” “Rough, tough people with criminal records are asking for asylum,” he said. Trump has often sought to conflate illegal immigration and asylum, which has been enshrined in U.S. and international law for decades. Several of the administration’s attempts to curb asylum claims have been reversed by federal courts. Trump had repeatedly threatened to close the border in recent days, raising expectations that he would use his visit to a section of recently upgraded fencing in Calexico to announce at least a partial closure. But White House advisors, some prominent Republican senators and key business leaders warned that shutting some of the 47 official entry points could quickly cripple U.S. auto manufacturing, agricultural exports and other cross-border trade, creating havoc in the U.S. economy — and in states that Trump would need to win reelection in 2020. Trump thus arrived in Calexico in full retreat, left to argue his case for a border emergency and additional funding for his wall immediately after withdrawing a dramatic threat of reprisal against the Mexican government. Trump nonetheless sought to portray his brief stop at the border as a victory lap. While visiting the fencing in Calexico, Trump said to television crews, “Through your camera, I want to thank him, the president of Mexico,” referring to Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “Over the last few days, Mexico has been very nice,” he said at another point, repeating his claims that that Mexican officials had suddenly started removing “thousands” of Central American migrants due to his threats. But bewildered Mexican officials say they haven’t changed their strategy or their enforcement operation. In recent years, in part at the behest of U.S. officials before Trump took office, Mexican authorities have deported more Central Americans than the U.S. government has. In the three months since López Obrador took office, his government detained more than 25,000 migrants. That’s less than the 27,000 detained during the same period a year earlier, according to the University of Texas’ Mexico Security Initiative.