Immigration tensions roiling US Congress

WASHINGTON — With barely two days before the US government runs out of money, and President Donald Trump feuding with Democrats over immigration, Republican congressional leaders scrambled yesterday to avoid an embarrassing federal shutdown.

A bipartisan deal on immigration that would shield some 700,000 people from deportation lay in tatters after the president's reported use of vulgar language during a tense White House meeting last week set off clashes with key Democrats.

The opposition party has been pushing for any budget agreement to include a deal on the future of the so-called "Dreamers" who were brought to the country illegally as children and are set to lose their protected status on March 5.

While some Senate Democrats have threatened to vote against a budget bill that does not include an immigration deal, Trump said he believed such an agreement remained possible.

But time was running out, and a government shutdown "could happen," Trump told Reuters, adding that there was still a possibility of him signing a short-term spending measure this week to avoid a shutdown.

With a Friday midnight deadline looming, Republicans are angling for a temporary bill that extends federal spending into mid-February, reauthorizes funding for a threatened children's health insurance scheme for six years, and scraps some health-related taxes -- with no immigrationlinked measure included.

"I think cool heads hopefully will prevail on this," House Speaker Paul Ryan told a press conference.

Rank-and-file Republican congressman Jason Lewis made a more direct pledge.

"We're not going to shut the government down," he said.