Where Wisconsin politicians stand on government shut down, border wall

As Americans wait for President Donald Trump to make his case for a border wall - Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI, says Democrats should end the shut down by compromising.

"You're not a nation if you don't enforce your immigration laws, and you don't enforce your borders," Johnson said in an interview with CBS 58. "And that's what president Trump is asking to do, and by the way he ran on it. This was the mandate he was given by the American public."

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, says Republicans should pass the spending bills democrats in the house passed that don't contain wall funding.

In a statement, she wrote:

“The House did their job and passed bipartisan legislation to end the Trump shutdown. Now Senate Majority Leader McConnell needs to stop obstructing a vote in the Senate. Both Democrats and Republicans agree President Trump should end his shutdown and sign bipartisan legislation to open the government.”

Rep. Gwen Moore, D-WI. says the wall is a waste of money.
"This is not a mandate from the people. This is a campaign rally," Moore said. "It's too expensive. It's not practical. It won't lend to border security."

Wisconsin's newest member of Congress, Rep Bryan Steil says, it's about more than just immigration.

"In particular on the drug trafficking," Steil said. "I was with the law enforcement community the other day in Kenosha, and we were talking about how many drugs are being trafficked across our southern border."

But will the speech mean progress on the shutdown? UWM Professor Mordecai Lee says presidents have changed national opinion with these addresses in the past, but it's a new era.

"Have American politics changed so much that people who like President Trump will watch the speech and say, yeah, of course I agree," Lee said. "And people who don't know President Trump are going to say no big deal I still disagree with him."