- Many Democrats are furious with members of their party for agreeing to a deal with Republican senators to reopen the government.
- These Democrats don’t think Republicans will fulfill their promise to vote on legislation to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program, set to expire on March 5.
- “Democrats are still not willing to go to the mat to allow people in my community to live in our country legally,” Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez said Monday.
Many Democrats are incensed about the deal Senate Democrats reached with Republicans on Monday, the third day of a shutdown, to reopen the government.
On Monday, a bipartisan group of senators — including 33 Democrats — led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reached an agreement to fund the government until February 8.
The senators agreed to the deal in exchange for a promise from the GOP to vote on legislation to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects from deportation about 700,000 undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers and is set to expire on March 5.
But many Democratic lawmakers and activists, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Kamala Harris of California, denounced the deal, arguing that Democrats couldn’t trust Republican leaders to fulfill their promises on immigration, the issue at the heart of the disagreement between the parties.
Harris, a likely 2020 presidential candidate who voted against the deal, said McConnell’s promise on DACA “fell far short of the ironclad guarantee” she needed “to support a stopgap spending bill.”
“I refuse to put the lives of nearly 700,000 young people in the hands of someone who has repeatedly gone back on his word,” she said. “I will do everything in my power to continue to protect Dreamers from deportation.”
Several Senate Democrats who supported the agreement are facing competitive reelection battles in 2018 in states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016. Others, including Virginia’s senators, represent large numbers of federal employees, thousands of whom were furloughed on Monday amid the shutdown.
www.businessinsider.com/democrats-are-incensed-by-their-own-partys-deal-with-the-gop-to-reopen-the-government-2018-1