US congressmen offer $1.4-B wall fund

WASHINGTON, D. C.: Congressional negotiators reached agreement Monday (Tuesday in Manila) night to prevent a of new barriers along the US-Mexico border, overcoming a late-stage hang-up over immigration enforcement issues that had threatened to scuttle the talks.

Republicans were desperate to avoid another bruising shutdown. They tentatively agreed to far less money for President Donald Trump’s border wall than the White House’s $5.7-billion wish

$1.4 billion, according to congressional aides. The funding measure ends September 30.

The agreement means 55 miles of new fencing — constructed through existing designs, such as metal slats instead of a concrete wall — but far less than the 215 miles the White House demanded in December. The fencing will be built in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

“With the government being shut down, the specter of another shutdown this close, what brought us back together I thought tonight was we didn’t want that to happen” again, said Senate Appropriations Committee chairman and American Representative of Alabama Richard Shelby.

until Tuesday, but the pact came in time to alleviate any threat of a second partial government shutdown this weekend. Aides revealed the details under condition of anonymity because the agreement is tentative.

“Our staffs are just working out the details,” said House Appropriations Committee chairman and Democratic Representativie of New York Nita Lowey.

The pact also includes increases for new technologies such as advanced screening at border entry point, humanitarian aid sought by Democrats,

This weekend, Shelby pulled the plug on the talks over Democratic demands to limit immigrant detentions by federal authorities, frustrating some of his fellow negotiators, but Democrats yielded ground on that issue in a fresh round of talks on Monday.

Asked if Trump would back the deal, Shelby said: “We believe from our dealings with them and the latitude they’ve given us, they will support it. We certainly hope so.”

Trump traveled to El Paso, Texas, for a campaign-style rally Monday night focused on immigration and border issues. He has been adamant that Congress approve money for a wall along the Mexican border, though he no longer repeats his 2016 mantra that Mexico would pay for it, and he took to the stage as lawmakers back in Washington were announcing their breakthrough.

“They said that progress is being made with this committee,” Trump told his audience, referring to the congressional bargainers. “Just so you know, we’re building the wall anyway.”

The agreement got bad reviews from some of Trump’s conservative allies.

“While the President was giving a great speech in El Paso, Congress was putting together a bad deal on immigration,” Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican-Ohio, wrote on Twitter.

Democrats carried more leverage into the talks after besting Trump on the 35-day shutdown

winning Trump’s signature. After yielding on border barriers, Democrats focused on reducing funding for detention beds to curb what they see as unnecessarily harsh enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

The agreement yielded curbed funding, overall, for ICE detention beds, which Democrats promised would mean the agency would hold fewer detainees than the roughly 49,000 detainees held on February 10, the most recent date for which

claimed the number of beds would be ratcheted down to 40,520.