WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump Tuesday night delivered his second State of the Union address, this time in front of a divided Congress. As expected, the president began by calling for unity, and along the way he touched on several topics that directly affect Texans.

• Trump touches on issues meaningful to Texans in State of the Union
• Space exploration, border security and economy comprised parts of Tuesday address 
• Dems critical of Trump's assertions concerning border wall, economy

“Millions of our fellow citizens are watching us now, gathered in the great chamber, hoping that we will govern not as two parties but as one nation,” Trump said to applause.

He started by promising that this year American astronauts will soon go back to space on American rockets, something that could bode well for Houston-based NASA.

Trump quickly moved on to touting his economic successes, citing an “unprecedented economic boom – a boom that has rarely been seen before.”

He claimed his administration has helped to create 5.3 million new jobs, 600,000 of which are in the manufacturing sector. He additionally stated 5 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps and that unemployment has “reached the lowest rate in half a century.”

Trump, taking a jab at the ongoing Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, stated: “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way.”

The address came on the heels of the longest government shutdown in American history, and without surprise Trump focused a great deal on illegal immigration and again made his case for a wall along the southern border.

“This is a moral issue. The lawless state of our southern border is a big threat to the safety, security, and financial well-being of all Americans,” Trump said.

“My administration has sent to the Congress a commonsense proposal to end the crisis on our southern border,” Trump continued. “It includes humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes that enable child smuggling, and plans for a new physical barrier, or wall, to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry.”

Much of that wall, if built, would divide Texas and Mexico. 

“This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier – not just a simple concrete wall,” Trump said.

In fact, Trump cited El Paso, Texas, as a city where a physical barrier has reduced crime.

“The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime – one of the highest in the country, and considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, with a power barrier in place, El Paso is one of our safest cities,” Trump said.

In response to Trumps statements about immigration, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, issued the following statement:

“The centerpiece of this speech was fear about a phony border crisis. There’s no path forward to avoid more chaos. It is less important how Trump reads a teleprompter one night of the year than the other 364 days of Twitter-fueled mayhem that threaten our union. If he were serious about solutions, like lowering prescription drug prices and rebuilding our infrastructure, we’d have more than this halftime show of empty promises – no substitute for real action.”

In addition to trade policy and infrastructure, Trump briefly discussed health care and skyrocketing prescription drug prices.

“It is unacceptable that Americans pay vastly more than people in other counties for the exact same drugs, often made in the exact same place. This is wrong, unfair, and together we can stop it,” he said.

Similar to what Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking, Trump said he is pursuing a late-term abortion ban.

“To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb,” he said.

The Democratic response to the State of the Union was provided by Georgia House Minority Leader Stacy Abrams. Among other topics, Abrams discussed the plight of furloughed federal workers during the shutdown.

“The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the President of the United States, one that defied every tenant of fairness and abandoned not just our people but our values,” she said.

Abrams also touched on criminal justice reform and economic disparity.

“So, when we had to negotiate criminal justice reform or transportation or foster care improvements, the leaders of our state didn’t shut down – we came together, and we kept our word,” she said.

“In Georgia and around the country, people are striving for a middle class where a salary truly equals economic security. But instead, families’ hopes are being crushed by Republican leadership that ignore real life or just doesn’t understand it,” Abrams continued.

Abrams strongly rebuked Trump's plans for a wall along the southern border. 

"America is made stronger by the presence of immigrants, not walls," she said.