The government shutdown is nearing its end after less than three days. Sen. minority leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats insisted on a provision in the new short-term continuing resolution bill to protect dreamers—those immigrants who came to the U.S. at an early age and lost their Obama-era federal protections from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act under Trump—while Republicans said they wouldn’t negotiate on immigration, and used a children’s insurance program (CHIP) as a bludgeoning weapon to get Democrats to cave. Recent polls indicated that most Americans believe the Republicans were to blame for the shutdown, but that didn’t matter—in less than 72 hours, with nothing on the DACA front besides a worthless promise from Mitch McConnell, Schumer gave in. Here’s his explanation, via tweet:
We will vote today to reopen the government, to continue negotiating a global agreement, with the commitment that, if an agreement is not reached by Feb 8th, the Senate will immediately proceed to consideration of legislation dealing with DACA. The process will be neutral & fair.
I am confident that there are sixty votes in the Senate for a DACA deal. And now there is a real pathway to get a bill on the floor and through the Senate. It is a good solution and I will vote for it.
I expect @SenateMajLdr to fulfill his commitment to the Senate & abide by this agreement. If he does not honor our agreement, he will have breached the trust of not only the Democratic Senators but the members of his own party as well.
The GOP Majority now has 17 days to prevent #Dreamers from being deported. In every possible way, urge your Senators to vote yes on our bipartisan compromise to #ProtectDreamers when it comes to the floor.
In other words, he’s trusting “assurances” from McConnell, who will inevitably screw him over—along with the dreamers—when he either refuses to vote on DACA, or marshals enough votes to kill it for good. Make no mistake: This is an abandonment. And 32 fellow Democrats—basically, everyone who isn’t planning to run for president in 2020—went along with him.
Here’s what Twitter had to say:
Hearing reports that Schumer has agreed to fund construction of an impenetrable border dome in exchange for amnesty for one undocumented irish guy living in Boston.
Democrats have managed to accede to Republican demands, demoralize their energized base, give a disengaged president a win, and look like they held a meaningless three day government shutdown — all at once.
For a minute it felt like they were standing for us. Like Democrats were finally listening to our pain and doing something about it. Standing up for us. Man, this hurts so much. It’s been 17 years! 17 years of inaction, deportations, waiting, hope, disappointment. I am so tired.
— Erika Andiola – #NoDreamNoDeal (@ErikaAndiola) January 22, 2018
Senate Democrats, with a couple of exceptions, sincerely believe the electorate and its preferences haven’t changed since 1994
Senate Democrats are about to collaborate in the exile of nearly a million innocents and blow a generation-long hole in their base because they worry about transient polling ten months from an election and exclusively listen to morons.
The Democrats appear to have caved. Rather than continuing to insist that DACA, opioids, and their other demands be addressed, it looks as though they have taken a deal to end the shutdown that relies upon a @SenateMajLdr promise. If so, they are fools. https://t.co/aBtXXooySRpic.twitter.com/XPhMI6umRu