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WASHINGTON — An aggressive push to overhaul the decades-old system for sponsoring family members for citizenship is complicating the drive to protect “Dreamers” from deportation at a critical point in negotiations.

After President Donald Trump reportedly questioned why the United States should offer protections to immigrants from "shithole" countries, Democrats and some Republicans from Texas expressed outrage. One Democratic congressman from Houston said he'd push for impeachment.

The Border Patrol has told agents to quickly process emergency vehicles through immigration checkpoints and reminded them they have discretion at “sensitive locations,” such as hospitals.

A group of House Democrats want the Senate Finance Committee to question President Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary about high drug prices at his former employer, Eli Lilly. In a letter to Finance Committee leaders, led by Texas Reps. Beto O'Rourke and Lloyd Doggett, the Democrats said Alex Azar should also be pressed on his commitment to uphold the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare.

WASHINGTON — A nationwide organization with Texas roots that formed to fight the Trump administration plans celebrations, of sorts, now that the new Republican-drawn tax bill is law — “retirement parties” for members of Congress who supported it.

Congress gave final approval on Thursday to legislation to keep the government funded into January, averting a government shutdown this weekend but kicking fights over issues like immigration, surveillance and health care into the new year. The stopgap spending bill extends government funding until Jan. 19 while also providing a short-term funding fix for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, whose financing lapsed at the end of September.

The House passed an $81 billion disaster aid package Thursday, the largest single infusion of federal relief dollars yet for areas ravaged by hurricanes and wildfires this year. The measure was approved 251-169, drawing opposition from some conservative Republicans and Democrats alike. The vote came moments after the chamber acted to avert a government shutdown, approving by 231-188 a stripped-down measure to fund the government through Jan. 19.