Talks between congressional Republicans and Democrats aimed at averting another US government shutdown have broken down without agreement.

The negotiators were hoping for a deal by Monday to give Congress time to pass legislation by Friday, when last month’s federal funding deal runs out.

The impasse centres on Democratic demands to limit the detention of irregular migrants already in the US.

The previous shutdown, lasting 35 days, was the longest in US history.

Hundreds of thousands of workers were furloughed or worked without pay. The cost to the US economy was estimated at $11bn (£8.5bn).

It was unclear how the negotiators would try to reach a deal as no further talks were scheduled, Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying.

What is the latest impasse about?

Democrats want Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to concentrate on detaining migrants with criminal records instead of those who have overstayed their visas by limiting the number of beds its detention centres have.

Democrats were hoping to cap the number of beds at 16,500. That is roughly the number of people detained in the last years of the Obama White House, the Washington Post says.

 

Source: BBC