Talks collapse on border deal as US government shutdown looms
Democrats and Republicans still miles apart on Trump's demand for billions for a wall along the US-Mexican border
Washington — Talks on border security funding collapsed after Democratic and Republican legislators clashed over immigrant detention policy as they worked to avert another US government shutdown, a Republican senator said on Sunday. “The talks are stalled right now,” Republican senator Richard Shelby told Fox News on Sunday. He said the impasse was over Democrats’ desire to cap the number of beds in detention facilities for people who enter the country illegally. Efforts to resolve the dispute over border security funding extended into the weekend as a special congressional negotiating panel aimed to reach a deal by Monday, legislators and aides said. Democratic senator Jon Tester played down any breakdown in talks. “It is a negotiation. Negotiations seldom go smoothly all the way through,” he told the Fox programme. Tester, one of 17 negotiators, said he was hopeful a deal could be reached. But Shelby put the chances of reaching a deal by Monday at 50-50. No further talks were sche...
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