Outgoing White House chief John Kelly said in an interview published on Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump's idea of building a "wall" at the Mexico border was dropped earlier.
Building a solid "wall" along the 3,200-kilometer U.S.-Mexico frontier was a central plank of Trump's 2016 election campaign.
As a partial government shutdown entered the ninth day due to an impasse over Trump's demands for funding the U.S.-Mexico border barrier, the president's chief of staff gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times, and said: "To be honest, it's not a wall."
"The president still says 'wall.' Oftentimes frankly he'll say 'barrier' or 'fencing,' now he's tended toward steel slats," said Kelly, adding that we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.
John Kelly, outgoing White House chief of staff, attends an Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons annual meeting in Washington, October 11, 2018. /VCG Photo
However, what Kelly said seems in contradiction with what Trump has done. In 2018 alone, Trump has tweeted about the "wall" almost 100 times.
"Either we build (finish) the wall or we close the border," Trump - who has adopted the 2020 re-election mantra "promises made, promises kept" – posted on Friday.
As a former Marine general who led the military command responsible for Latin America, Kelly was Trump's Homeland Security secretary before becoming White House chief of staff in July 2017.
His relationship with the president has reportedly deteriorated, and he is set to be replaced by Mick Mulvaney, the current budget director.
A group of Central American migrants look for a spot to cross the U.S.-Mexico border fence from Tijuana into the U.S.,December 30, 2018. /VCG Photo
"Illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly, are not bad people," said Kelly in the interview, adding that many had been manipulated by traffickers.
"I have nothing but compassion for them, the young kids."
The remarks were in sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the president who takes a hard line on immigration.
Trump has spoken of an "invasion" of migrants and complained of "many gang members and some very bad people" among a thousand-strong caravan of immigrants that traveled to the U.S. in October.
A boy carries a picture of Guatemalan seven-year-old Jakelin Caal, who died in a Texas hospital two days after being taken into custody by U.S. border patrol agents, as her coffin is taken from Raxruha to the cemetery in San Antonio Secortez, December 25, 2018. /VCG Photo
On Saturday, Trump blamed opposition Democrats "and their pathetic immigration policies" for the deaths of two Guatemalan children who crossed the border illegally with relatives and were taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol.
In a departure from the stance taken by his boss, Kelly said the way to halt illegal immigration was to "stop U.S. demand for drugs, and expand economic opportunity" in Central America.
The Democrats are refusing to provide billions of dollars for Trump's border wall project and the president insists he will not fully fund the government unless he gets the money.
Capitol Hill is seen as a partial U.S. government shutdown continues in Washington, December 30, 2018. /VCG Photo
As long as the debate holds up approval of a wider spending bill, about 800,000 federal employees are not getting salaries and non-essential parts of the government are unable to function.
It's reported that the difficulty in getting approval for the wall has created disapproval among some Trump loyalists.
Columnist Ann Coulter, who is the author of "In Trump We trust," recently predicted that the president will not be re-elected.
(With inputs from agencies)