In the US, the talks between Republican and Democratic lawmakers appeared to have collapsed over the week end. Nine federal departments and related agencies could be facing another shutdown if there is no breakthrough this week. The special congressional negotiating panel over border security is still aiming to reach a deal on Monday.
The government just had a historic partial shutdown earlier this year after Trump failed to get support from the Democrats on funding for the border wall. Now, it’s believed that in return for some funding for physical barriers at the border, Democrats requested to lower the cap of detention beds for undocumented migrants. Democrats believed that would force ICE agents to focus on arresting and deporting serious criminals.
White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney warned that he “absolutely cannot” rule out another shutdown. And he added Trump “cannot sign everything they put in front of him. There’ll be some things that simply we couldn’t agree to.”
