Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • A5

TUESDAY APRIL 3 2018 1 border wall spending, but much of that money can only be used to repair existing segments, not build new sections. Among the measures the administration is pur- suing: Ending special safeguards that prevent the immediate deportation of children arrested at the border and traveling alone. Under current law, unaccompanied children from countries that border the U.S. would be placed under the super- vision of the Department of Health and Human Services and undergo often-lengthy deportation proceedings before an immigration judge instead of being deported. The administration is also pushing Congress to terminate a 1997 court settlement that requires the government to release children from custody to parents, adult relatives or other caretakers as their cases make their way through immigration court.

Officials complain that many children never show up at their hearings. The proposals appear the same as those includ- ed on a White House im- migration wish list that was released in October but failed to gain traction during negotiations over the border wall. Such proposals are likely to face opposition from moderate Republicans and Demo- crats going into the mid- term elections. But Trump appears intent on ensuring the issues remain at the forefront of public con- versation, even though the omnibus was widely seen as the last major legisla- tion likely passed this year. In his Easter weekend tweets and comments, Trump continued to blame Democrats for killing the Obama-era Deferred Ac- tion for Childhood Arriv- als program despite the fact that he was the one who moved to end the program.

He also claimed DACA, which has provid- ed temporary protection from deportation and work permits to hundreds of thousands of young people, is luring people to cross the border illegally, even though the program and most proposals to replace it have never been open to new arrivals. Trump spent much of the weekend at his Mar-a- Lago club, having meals with his family, watching cable news shows and rubbing elbows with con- servative commentators including Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to several club members. Also spotted at the club: championship golfer Dust- in Johnson, MyPillow maker Michael J. Lindell, boxing promoter Don King and former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik. Staffers with Trump over the holiday included policy adviser Stephen Miller, one of the chief architects of the adminis- anti-immigration policies, but not his chief of staff John Kelly or his elder daughter, Ivanka, both considered more moderate influences.

past calls to use the changing the Senate rules to require a simple major- ity of 51 votes to override a rule instead of 60 have been repeatedly dismissed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who argues Republicans will welcome the filibuster if they return to being the Senate minority. The cur- rent split is 51-49 favoring Republicans. Notably, favor- ed DACA solution mus- tered only 39 votes in the Senate, meaning it have passed even if the Senate did approve the changes. tweets calling on Mexico to halt filled with immi- grants in the country ille- gally came after a report early Sun- day that featured the lead- er of the union represent- ing border patrol agents predicting that those in the caravan would create havoc and chaos in the U.S. as they wait for im- migration reform.

About 1,100 migrants, many from Honduras, have been marching along roadsides and train tracks in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. These of the migrant caravans have been held in south- ern Mexico for at least the last five years. They began as short processions of migrants, some dressed in biblical garb and carrying crosses, as an Easter- season protest against the kidnappings, extortion, beatings and killings suf- fered by many Central American migrants as they cross Mexico. Individuals in the cara- vans often try to reach the U.S. border but usually not as part of the caravan.

The caravans typically proceed much farther north than the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. The current march is sched- uled to end this month with a conference on mi- gration issues in the cen- tral Mexican state of Pue- bla. FROM PAGE 1A IMMIGRATION WASHINGTON Environmental Protec- tion Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Monday that he would revoke Obama-era stan- dards requiring cars and light trucks sold in the United States to average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025, a move that could change the composition of the na- auto fleet for years. The push to rewrite the first-ever carbon limits on cars and SUVs, which came out of an agreement among federal officials, automakers and the state of California, is sure to spark a major political and legal battle. California has authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own emissions limits, and it has threat- ened to sue if its waiver is revoked and it is blocked from imposing stricter targets.

Such a fight has broad implications be- cause 12 other states, representing more than a third of the auto market, follow standards. decision reflects the power of the auto industry, which asked him to revisit the Obama ad- review of the model years 2022- 2025 fuel-efficiency tar- gets just days after he took office. President Donald Trump told autoworkers in Detroit last year that he was determined to roll back the emissions rules as part of a bigger effort to jump-start the car industry. Obama adminis- determination was Pruitt said in a statement. EPA cut the Midterm Evaluation process short with politically charged expediency, made as- sumptions about the stan- dards that comport with reality, and set the standards too Pruitt did not specify what limits would be put in place, saying the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- tration would establish a standard that auto manufacturers to make cars that people both want and can afford while still expanding environmental and safety benefits of newer The agency said he is still considering the status of waiver.

Officials in that state immediately excoriated the decision. is a politically motivated effort to weak- en clean vehicle standards with no documentation, evidence or law to back up that Mary Ni- chols, head of the Cali- fornia Air Resources Board, said in a statement. She argued that the move would the shift toward cleaner cars and that action, if imple- mented, will worsen peo- health with degraded air quality and undermine regulatory certainty for Nichols also hinted at the potential legal fight to come. decision takes the U.S. auto industry back- ward, and we will vigor- ously defend the existing clean vehicle standards and fight to preserve one national clean vehicle she said.

The decision nothing in California and the 12 other states with clean-car rules that reduce emissions and improve gas mileage those rules remain in The efficiency gains that the U.S. auto fleet has made in recent decades have slowed since 2013, as gas prices dipped and the sale of pickup trucks and SUVs accelerated. In the document Pruitt signed Monday, he said EPA had been in its assumptions and projec- about the availabil- ity of technology to meet the standards and had received substantial input from automakers that they needed to be scaled back. He suggested that if cleaner vehicles are too expensive, consumers will hold onto older cars, thereby lowering the over- all efficiency of cars on the road. Peter Welch, president and chief executive of the National Automobile Dealers Association, said in a statement Monday that while the group sup- ports im- in reducing vehicle emissions, dards alone whatever they are do the The Alliance of Auto- mobile Manufacturers, whose members produce 70 percent of the cars and light trucks sold in the United States, endorsed the shift.

The group esti- mates that it would be more realistic to require the fleet to reach a miles- per-gallon target in the high 40s by 2025. The U.S. fleet averaged 31.8 mpg for model year 2017, according to federal figures. Alliance spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist said in an email that her members the adminis- tration for pursuing a data-driven effort and a single national program as it works to finalize future standards. We appreciate that the administration is working to find a way to both increase fuel econo- my standards and keep new vehicles affordable to more But two of those mem- bers, Ford and Honda, recently urged the govern- ment to maintain the current requirements but give manufacturers addi- tional flexibility.

EPA to ease emissions rules BY JULIET EILPERIN AND BRADY DENNIS Washington Post former Russian spy. The Kremlin may be trumpeting the possibility of a summit with Trump to deflect attention. The Russian state news agen- cy, Tass, reported the newest statements on a potential meeting of the two presidents. a telephone conversation between our presidents, Trump sug- gested that the first meet- ing could be held in Wash- Russian presi- dential aide Yury Ushakov said on Monday, accord- ing to the news agency. Ushakov said no dis- cussions have occurred since March 20.

everything goes well, I hope that the American side would not refuse its proposal to discuss the possibility of organizing the summit he told journalists, and there would be an end to the steps the Americans have taken based on groundless Russia is eager to re- sume such discussions, Ushakov added. After the Tass report provoked questions in Washington, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a state- ment, the president himself confirmed on March 20, hours after his last call with President Putin, the two had dis- cussed a bilateral meeting in the at a number of potential venues, includ- ing the White House. We have nothing further to add at this WASHINGTON The Kremlin said on Monday that President Donald Trump invited Russian President Vladi- mir Putin to the White House when the two men spoke by phone last month, though the Krem- lin and the White House both said that a summit is far from certain. Trump alluded to the possibility in remarks to White House reporters shortly after the call, which he made to congrat- ulate Putin on his contro- versial re-election. will probably get together in the not-too- distant future so that we can discuss arms, we can discuss the arms Trump said on March 20.

Neither side has an- nounced specifics, in- cluding a date or a place. The president drew bipartisan criticism for his call, both because he con- gratulated Putin after an election widely seen as a sham and because he mention either a recent nerve-agent attack in England blamed on Russia or its interference in the 2016 U.S. election campaign. Nothing more was said about a meeting subse- quently, by either country, as the United States and some allies imposed addi- tional sanctions and ex- pelled Russian diplomats to punish Russia for elec- tion meddling and for the alleged nerve-agent poi- soning in England of a British citizen who is a Trump invites Putin to visit White House BY NOAH BIERMAN Tribune Washington Bureau Thousands of teachers in Oklahoma and Ken- tucky walked off the job Monday morning, shutting down school districts as they protested cuts in pay, benefits and school fund- ing in a movement that has grown in force since igniting in West Virginia earlier this year. The wave of strikes in red states, mainly orga- nized by ordinary teachers on Facebook, has caught lawmakers and sometimes the own labor unions flat-footed.

The protesters say they are fed up with years of education funding cuts and stagnant pay in Republican-dom- inated states. In Oklahoma City, where protesting teachers were gathering at the Capitol on Monday morn- ing, Katrina Ruff, a local teacher, carried a sign that read, to West gave us the guts to stand up for she said. The next red state dom- ino to fall could be Arizo- na. On March 28, thou- sands of teachers gathered in Phoenix to demand a 20 percent pay raise and more funding for schools. Striking West Virginia teachers declared victory last month after winning a 5 percent raise, but Okla- homa educators are hold- ing out for more.

Last week, the Legisla- ture in Oklahoma City voted to provide teachers with an average raise of $6,000 per year, or a roughly 16 percent raise, depending on experience. Gov. Mary Fallin, a Re- publican, signed the pack- age into law. But teachers said it was not enough. They have asked for a $10,000 raise, as well as additional fund- ing for local schools and raises for support staff such as bus drivers and custodians.

About 200 of the 500 school districts shut down Monday as teachers walked out, defying calls from some parents and administrators for them to be grateful about what they had already received from the state. In Kentucky, teachers are protesting a pension reform bill that abruptly passed the State House and Senate last week. If Gov. Matt Bevin signs it into law, it will phase out defined-benefit pensions for teachers and replace them with hybrid retire- ment plans that combine features of a traditional pension with features of the 401(k) accounts used in the private sector. Teachers in the state are not eligible for Social Security benefits.

In Arizona, teachers are agitating for more gener- ous pay and more money for schools after watching the state slash funds to public education for years. ALEX SLITZ Lexington Herald-Leader Thousands of teachers gather during a rally for education funding and changes to their pension system Monday at the state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. Teachers protest in Kentucky and Oklahoma BY DANA GOLDSTEIN New York Times.