New hurdle emerges in border security talks
WASHINGTON – Bargainers clashed Sunday over whether to limit the number of migrants authorities can detain, tossing a new hurdle before negotiators hoping to strike a border security compromise for Congress to pass this coming week. The White House wouldn’t rule out a renewed partial government shutdown if an agreement isn’t reached.
With the Friday deadline approaching, the two sides remained separated by hundreds of mil- lions of dollars over how much to spend to construct President Donald Trump’s promised border wall. But rising to the fore was a related dispute over curbing Customs and Immigration Enforcement, the federal agency that Republicans see as an emblem of tough immigration policies and Democrats accuse of often going too far.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in appearances on NBC’S “Meet the Press” and “Fox News Sunday,” said “you absolutely cannot” eliminate the possibility of another shutdown if a deal is not reached over the wall and other border matters. The White House had asked for $5.7 billion, a figure rejected by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, and the mood among bargainers has soured, according to people familiar with the negotiations not authorized to speak publicly about private talks.
“You cannot take a shutdown off the table, and you cannot take $5.7 (billion) off the table,” Mulvaney told NBC, “but if you end up someplace in the middle, yeah, then what you probably see is the president say, ‘Yeah, OK, and I’ll go find the money someplace else.’ ”
The debated is expected to get wide coverage Monday, as President Donald Trump and rising Democratic star Beto O’rourke have rallies scheduled in the border city of El Paso, Texas.
Mulvaney did signal the White House would prefer not to have a repeat shutdown, after one that stretched more than a month, left more than 800,000 government workers without paychecks and sent Trump’s poll numbers tumbling. As support in his own party began to splinter, Trump surrendered after the shutdown hit 35 days without getting money for the wall.