Now that it’s over, he questions why Democrats initially opposed a temporary funding measure to keep the federal government open.
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In exchange for continuing funding through February 8, Schumer got a verbal commitment from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the Senate would take up legislation to keep Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients from being deported.
Schumer “took it off” the table, Illinois Sen. Some Republicans support those protections as well.
“If they’re proud of the role of thwarting DREAMers, most Americans would disagree with that”, he added.
Making negotiations somewhat more hard is that it’s not clear exactly what the President would accept on illegal immigrant “Dreamers” – it was described Tuesday only as a “permanent solution” to DACA – it’s not clear if that means citizenship, a permanent legal status, or a temporary one.
The White House and congressional Democrats are scrambling to resolve their differences on the politically charged immigration issue to avoid the possibility of another government shutdown in two-and-a-half weeks. If the voices of the extreme left prevail, there will be no going along with anything close to Trump’s wall.
“We actually got nothing”, Adrian Reyna of the United We Dream advocacy group said on the HuffPost Politics podcast. Lindsey Graham immediately announced that that would be okay with him and he would vote for this.
In exchange, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) promised to allow an immigration bill to be brought before the chamber before then. But it’s not winning.
“We’ve been meeting with the House”. “The fact that they’re starting to talk about more of the finer details is very encouraging to me”.
“Border security-Democrats may not agree on the exact amount, but they certainly agree that there is a need for that in their willingness to do that”.
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of OH said that once the spending Bill was passed, “I’m hoping we can get serious about a whole host of issues”.
Lawmakers on both sides are under the microscope.
The senator is and will continue to take heat from the right but should stick to his position.
Congress ultimately passed a short-term funding resolution.
The DACA quandary will be dealt with before there’s a problem of shipping these illegal immigrants back home. He has solid conservative credentials, but is being a realist.
Collins says one Senator even used it as a microphone to lighten the mood during tense negotiations.
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Trump is also expected to discuss the immigration debate at his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
