President Donald Trump has said “nobody knows for sure” whether Democrats and Republicans will agree on a solution for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, after Democrats agreed to end a government shutdown in exchange for renewed debate on the issue.
“Nobody knows for sure that the Republicans & Democrats will be able to reach a deal on DACA by February 8, but everyone will be trying,” Mr Trump tweeted, “....with a big additional focus put on Military Strength and Border Security.”
He added: “The Dems have just learned that a Shutdown is not the answer!”
Democrats shut down the federal government last week by refusing to sign a spending bill, saying they would hold out for a compromise on DACA – an Obama-era policy that shields childhood immigrants to the US from deportation. Mr Trump rescinded the policy in September, giving Congress six months to find a permanent, legislative fix.
Senate Democrats agreed to sign the spending bill on Monday, after Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to allow for debate on the issue next month.
Mr Trump celebrated by calling the shutdown a “big win for Republicans” – and some Democrats seemed to agree. The more liberal members of the party were frustrated that they had shut down the government for three days – a sizeable political risk – and failed to negotiate any compromise on DACA.
Democrats were especially angry in the House, where their Republican counterparts claimed they were not bound by Mr McConnell’s promise to take up the issue in the Senate.
“They blink, they just do, and it’s unfortunate,” Representative Luis Gutiérrez said of the Senate Democrats, according to Politico. “I thought they were going to stand tall and firm.”
Democrats agreed to Mr McConnell’s plan after realising that they had miscalculated the favourability of a shut down, according to the New York Times. Recent polls show that securing a deal for DACA beneficiaries, while popular, is not as important to most Americans as keeping the government open.
In exchange for reopening the government, Mr McConnell agreed to allow bipartisan negotiations on immigration, spending, and health programmes. He said he would open the Senate floor to the DACA debate on 8 February if no deal was reached before then.
“If you want results, you have to compromise, and if you’re unwilling to compromise, you won’t get results,” said Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp, according to the Times.
Protections for approximately 700,000 childhood immigrants are set to expire on 5 March if Congress does not reach an agreement. A court recently ordered the government to continue accepting DACA renewal applications until a legislative solution is reached, but the Trump administration has vowed to fight that ruling.
