The Latest: White House threatens to veto border bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Congress and immigration (all times local):
10:15 p.m.
The White House is threatening to veto a $4.5 billion border bill that House Democrats plan to try pushing through the chamber this week.
White House officials complain in a letter to lawmakers that the bill lacks money for detention by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and for border security measures. They also objected to other provisions making it harder for authorities to detain migrants.
The Democratic bill omits money for added beds the agency wants to detain more people, and for building President Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the Mexican border.
House leaders hope lawmakers will approve the measure as soon as Tuesday, before Congress leaves for a July 4 recess.
The Republican-run Senate plans to vote this week on a similar bipartisan bill
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10 p.m.
Hispanic and liberal House Democrats are pushing party leaders for stronger protections for migrant children as the chamber prepares to consider a $4.5 billion border bill.
The overall legislation is aimed at helping the growing numbers of people who have been caught crossing the southern border into the U.S. Most of the money would help care for the migrants at a time when officials say their agencies have been overwhelmed by the influx of migrants and are running out of funds.
While the bill already sets some conditions about how children should be treated, lawmakers who met late Monday with Speaker Nancy Pelosi said they wanted new provisions ensuring humane treatment.
They said they expected changes in the bill itself, and said other language could end up in separate legislation
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7:15 p.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President Donald Trump’s threatened coast-to-coast deportations of migrants “outside the circle of civilized human behavior.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer labeled the warning “the very definition of callousness” in remarks that underscored the gap between the two sides over immigration.
The two leaders spoke after a weekend tweet in which Trump said he would give Congress two weeks to solve “the Asylum and Loopholes problems” along the border with Mexico. “If not, Deportations start!” he tweeted.
The president had earlier warned that there would soon be a nationwide sweep aimed at “millions” of people living illegally in the U.S., including families. The sweeps were supposed to begin Sunday, but Trump said he postponed them.
