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Reuters
WASHINGTON
Negotiations in the US House of Representatives on immigration legislation were on the verge of collapse on Tuesday as Republicans fought over how much protection to give undocumented"Dreamer"immigrants and as President Donald Trump ramped up his war against illegal and legal immigrants.
High-level talks were set for later on Tuesday involving House Republican leaders and warring centrist and conservative lawmakers in the party that controls both chambers of Congress.
Some House Republican aides portrayed the closed-door session as crucial amid the deadlock.
Failure to craft a compromise could result in renegade centrists forcing votes on the House floor on a bill that could pass with mostly Democratic support.
Even if House Speaker Paul Ryan manages to write a compromise bill toughening US border security and ending the threat of deportation for"Dreamers"- undocumented immigrants brought into the United States as children - his solution could be rebuffed by Democrats who are needed to enact any immigration bill.
House aides familiar with this months-long effort to dislodge immigration legislation from a conservative blockade acknowledged that Democrats were not part of the consultations. Even some prominent Republicans viewed Ryan's gambit skeptically.
Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a central figure in efforts to protect Dreamer youths now that Trump wants to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that temporarily protects them from deportation.
