It has been over 25 days since the United States governmental shutdown. The shutdown is centered around President Donald Trump’s demand for over $5 billion to be allocated to fund the border wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, a centerpiece of Trump’s presidential campaign.

On Saturday, Jan. 12, the shutdown became the longest in U.S. history in the modern era. As of Jan. 16, the federal departments of defense, labor, health and human services, education, veterans’ affairs and energy have been shuttered.

However other departments are in danger of shutting down in the near future, including agriculture, homeland security, the interior, state transportation, commerce and housing and urban development.

“I care simply about people who have families that work for the government who cannot feed their loved ones,” said senior Darrious Patterson. “The government shutdown is not doing the American people any good.”

Threats of the shutdown emerged on Dec. 11 after Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, both Democratic leaders, met with Trump discussing a funding deadline. Here, the Democrats countered Trump’s demand for $5 billion in border-wall funding with an offer of $1.6 billion in general border-security funding.

Multiple short-term funding bills were put in place to prevent the shutdown, referred to as “continuing resolution.” The first continuing resolution bill, passed through the Senate on Dec. 19, did not include border-wall funding, but would have allowed the government to stay open until Feb. 8.

A day later, Trump flipped on his acceptance of the continuing resolution and announced he would not sign a bill without wall funding, which led to House Republicans passing a continuing resolution that included $5.7 billion for wall funding.

On Dec. 21, the Senate voted down the House version of the bill and a deal was failed to be reached before the deadline, culminating in the shutdown.

ThoughtCo., an award-winning information site focused on expert-created education content, reported on the success of physical barriers and high-tech surveillance equipment used to combat illegal immigration. The site reported that about 600,000 people attempted to cross the San Diego border illegally, but that number dropped to 39,000 by 2015 after the construction of a fence and higher border patrol.

According to Trump, $113 billion is lost in income tax revenue due to illegal immigration, calling it “a strain on government spending by overburdening social welfare, health and education programs.”

However, ThoughtCo. also noted the many methods that have been used to get around the border barriers, that seemingly make a wall seem arbitrary to slowing the influx of undocumented immigrants. For example, using a complex tunnel system from digging under border barriers, climbing fences using wire cutters or locating vulnerable sections of the border that can be exploited.

“Instead of having the government shutdown over the debate about building a wall, the president should focus on other things like Flint, Michigan,” Patterson said. “They still have dirty water, and the government has enough money to fix this problem.”