immigration

A bipartisan group of senators have introduced a bill designed to ensure that the Department of Health and Human Services takes full responsibility for, and keeps better track of, unaccompanied children who come to the border seeking entry to the United States and then are placed with U.S. sponsors.

The legislation follows a new report that revealed that the government could not determine the whereabouts of nearly 1,500 children that HHS had placed with sponsors this year.

President Donald Trump raised the odds of a government shutdown that lawmakers from both parties thought they had averted, calling a spending package headed his way to keep the federal lights on “ridiculous.”

“I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms?” Trump tweeted Thursday morning.

House Republicans prepare a legislative strategy with President Donald Trump seemingly on board, only for the president to catch them off guard with a last-minute tweet suggesting his opposition to the plan.

That scenario has played out a few times this year as lawmakers debated immigration and appropriations bills. And it could realistically happen again next week as Congress plans to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown that Trump has already signaled he might force.

Lawmakers of both parties are criticizing the Trump administration’s decision to lower the annual refugee cap to 30,000 people for fiscal 2019 — a sharp decrease from the 45,000 cap set for fiscal 2018, and also a historic low.

“At a time when we should be defending our values and ideals as Americans and working to alleviate the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, it is truly repugnant to see the Trump administration double down on its efforts to reject our foundational values and humanitarian duty of providing those escaping persecution the opportunity to seek protection and safe haven,” Sen. Robert Menendez, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Monday.

On the eve of Hurricane Florence hitting the U.S. coast, Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage that the Homeland Security Department transferred nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a reprogramming move this summer.

Sen. Jeff Merkley’s office on Wednesday released documents confirming that $9.8 million from FEMA’s operations and support budget was diverted to fund ICE’s detention facilities and deportation operations.

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas invited his supporters to attend a fundraising breakfast for neighboring Texas Rep. John Carter on Tuesday.

The hook: Carter is a Republican in what experts expect to be one of the closest congressional races in the state.

Just hours after saying he had assured congressional leaders he would not shut down the federal government in a few weeks, President Donald Trump — citing conservative radio and television hosts — on Friday said he sees it as good politics for Republicans.

Trump told Fox News in an interview taped Thursday night before a campaign rally in Billings, Montana, that aired Friday morning that he was — at least in that moment — inclined to shut the government down after Sept. 30 if he doesn’t get his way, but added: “I don’t want to do anything that will hurt us, or potentially hurt us.”

Less than two months from Election Day, President Donald Trump on Thursday night stepped up his rhetoric about Social Security and other federal benefit programs by warning Democrats want to “destroy” them.

The president had not focused on the federal retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits program at previous political rallies. But as the midterm elections near, he debuted some new — and sharp — lines at a rally in Billings, Montana.

Updated 6:17 a.m. | President Donald Trump on Thursday said he and lawmakers will delay a border security fight until after November’s midterms. He also accused the author of an sharply critical anonymous op-ed and newspaper that published it of treason.

Trump told Fox News in an interview taped before a rally in Billings, Montana, set to air Friday morning that he is inclined to shut the government down after Sept. 30 if he doesn’t get his way, but “I don’t want to do anything that will hurt us, or potentially hurt us.”

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. — When it comes to battlegrounds for the midterm elections, Kansas might not be the first place that comes to mind. But the fight for control of the House is well underway in the Kansas City suburbs. 

Rep. Kevin Yoder was confronted with his re-election dilemma here while crisscrossing the street as the sun beat down on the Tiblow Days parade one Saturday last month.