BORDER/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In high-stakes negotiations over immigration, the Trump administration is pushing for policy changes that limit the rights of asylum seekers and unaccompanied children who cross the U.S. border, as well as for more money for the president’s promised border wall.
Democrats oppose all these elements, but with the clock ticking toward a possible government shutdown, people in both parties said that talks Thursday [1-18-18] had a more positive tone than in recent days.
Lawmakers and the White House are hunting for a bipartisan accord that would extend legal status to young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, as well as increase border security and make other changes to immigration law. Without such a deal in place, a sufficient number of Senate Democrats plan to oppose a short-term spending bill, which would prompt a shutdown. Current funding for the government expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday…
Republicans argue that U.S. law makes it too hard to deport certain border crossers. For instance, individuals who can successfully argue at a border screening that they have a ‘credible fear’ of persecution in their home country may wait inside the U.S. while a claim of asylum is litigated… Another sticking point, aides said, is how much new funding to provide for border security and specifically for fencing or walls along the border.”
-Laura Meckler, “Donald Trump Wants Limits on Asylum Seeker Rights in Immigration Talks,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 18, 2018 07:44pm