5 things to know about the border bill at the heart of GOP shutdown threats

It’s the border bill that could cause a government shutdown.  

Congressional Republicans are threatening to shut down the government if Democrats don’t pass House Resolution — or H.R. 2 — a sweeping bill that would drastically restrict the asylum process while establishing a vast new surveillance system to forcibly freeze regional migration and crack down on the existing undocumented population.   

Republicans say that the bill, which passed the GOP-controlled House last year with no Democratic support, is necessary to stop hundreds of thousands of migrants — including thousands of unaccompanied children — from coming across the U.S. southern border.