On Jan. 22, 2018 Congress brought an end to a three-day government shutdown after a 60-hour standoff in the Senate.
Democrats gave up their demands aimed at protecting roughly 690,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children (also known as DREAMers) and voted Monday to reopen the government, albeit with assurances that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring a separate immigration bill to the floor in early February.
“We will vote to reopen the government,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “We will continue to fight for the DREAMers in the weeks ahead.”
Although the government is no longer on shut down, the agreement is only a temporary fix and the new deadline is likely to lead to another partisan disagreement over immigration and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).
It is still unclear whether DREAMers will have proper protection.
Back in September 2017, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi believed they had a deal that would exchange protections for DREAMers for more border security, without funding President Trump’s promised border wall.
The White House later released a list of 70 demands in exchange for protecting DREAMers, including the border wall.
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