A border 'breaking point'

— Border Patrol is on pace to arrest 520 percent more families at the border this month than it did this time last year.

— The Communication Workers of America told lawmakers Wednesday that the Republican tax cuts hurt workers.

GOOD MORNING! It’s March 28 and this is Morning Shift, your daily tipsheet on labor and immigration news. Send tips, exclusives and suggestions to rrainey@politico.com, thesson@politico.com, ikullgren@politico.com, and tnoah@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @RebeccaARainey, @tedhesson, @IanKullgren, and @TimothyNoah1.

‘BREAKING POINT’ AT THE BORDER: Border Patrol is on pace in March to arrest more than 55,000 family members along the southwest border, a 520 percent increase over levels this time last year, POLITICO’s Ted Hesson reports. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday from El Paso, Texas, that the family crossings had reached a “breaking point.” He blamed the federal courts for limiting the administration’s ability to deport migrants quickly. "The last time we had crossings near this level, they were almost all single adults from Mexico who could be swiftly repatriated,” McAleenan said. “There’s a big difference." More from Hesson here.

HOUSE PASSES GENDER WAGE BILL: The House on Wednesday passed, 242-187, the Paycheck Fairness Act H.R. 7 (116), POLITICO’s Sarah Ferris reports. The bill would increase penalties for gender-based wage discrimination and bar employers from penalizing workers who share wage information. “For many, this is the difference between financial stability and poverty,” House Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said on the House floor. “In fact, we know that achieving pay equity would cut the poverty rate for working women by more than 50 percent.”

Only seven Republicans backed the measure, adding ballast to Democrats' political case that the GOP doesn't support women's issues. In a rebuttal, House Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) introduced the WAGE Equity Act, which would create a “self-audit” system to “incentivize businesses to rectify pay disparity,” according to a summary of the legislation.

TAX CUT, JOB CUTS: Communication Workers of America President Chris Shelton told the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday that since the passage of President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut his members have “been in a downward spiral.” Despite AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's promise before the bill's passage that the company would add 7,000 jobs and pay “greater wages" if it passed, Shelton said the company “actually eliminated over 12,000 jobs.” Democrat Rep. Lloyd Doggett (Texas) said “the claims that outsourcing would be stopped, just like the claims that all this repatriated money would come back and we’d see the spurt in investment, they just have proven to be false.” Watch a recording of the hearing here.

EXCLUSIVE: SENATORS PRESS ADMINISTRATION ON PENSIONS: Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.), wrote Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig Wednesday about the Trump administration’s reversal of an Obama administration plan to bar the payment of lump-sum retirement benefits in lieu of lifetime annuities. “Retirees ... will once again be required to make critical decisions that could leave their retirement security at much greater risk,” the senators wrote, citing a 2015 GAO report that found employers did not give retirees sufficient information when offering lump-sum benefits. Among other disadvantages, lump-sum payments, unlike defined-benefit pensions, do not enjoy federal protection under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and are not insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. More from Rainey here.

POMPEO DODGES CENTRAL AMERICAN FUNDING: “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today dodged questions about whether the Trump administration will cut off or delay aid to Central American nations to punish them for an outflow of asylum seekers to the United States,” POLITICO’s Ted Hesson reports. Hundreds of millions in aid dollars approved by Congress for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have been frozen at the White House budget office, Hesson reported Tuesday, amid confusion over whether the president really meant it when he said he would cut off aid to those countries to punish them for driving migrants north.

During a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Pompeo did not address inquiries into the holdup in any direct way, but said Trump had “made very clear“ that his administration will use tax dollars effectively, adding that a recent surge in families arriving at the border was “proof of its own that [the funding] has not been effective.” More from Hesson here.

MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS STRUCK DOWN: A federal judge Wednesday blocked new work requirements on Medicaid recipients, finding that “the federal government failed to justify that adding employment conditions and other changes to Medicaid in Arkansas and Kentucky” advanced the programs' purpose of providing health coverage. “More than 18,000 low-income adults in Arkansas were thrown off Medicaid last year for failing to meet requirements that they work or participate in another job-related activity for at least 80 hours per month in order to keep their health care," POLITICO’s Rachana Pradhan reports. More here.

Related read: “A job-scarce town struggles with Arkansas’s first-in-nation Medicaid work rules,” from The Washington Post

ROSS DUCKS BUDGET HEARING: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross declined to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee for a routine hearing regarding his department’s budget. Ross was expected to face a grilling from Democrats on his decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census. Ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said he'd planned to ask the secretary “why he misled me” about whether it was he, Ross, or DOJ officials, who first pressed to add the controversial question. A Commerce Department spokesperson said the department "continues to work with the committee on potential witnesses" for the hearing. Oddly, Ross accepted an invitation before the House appropriations panel next week. More from POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes here.

— "Republicans warn Trump to back off economy-wrecking tariffs," from POLITICO

— "Trump’s Government Labor Pick Comes Accused of Union Violations," from Bloomberg Law

— “Mark Janus, plaintiff in union fees case, appeals for refund,” from POLITICO

— “Workers Push Back as Companies Gather Fingerprints and Retina Scans,” from The Wall Street Journal

— “Trump: Google CEO 'totally committed' to U.S., not Chinese, military,” from POLITICO

— “Trump’s Travel Ban Faces Fresh Legal Jeopardy,” from POLITICO Magazine

— “The New Politics of the Retirement Crisis,” from The New Republic

— “Lyft and Pinterest Won’t Be Giving Shareholders Much Say,” from The New York Times

THAT’S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT!

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