Dem Leadership Abandoning Immigrants in Budget Talks?
Mike Lillis on The Hill reports that Democratic leaders are backing off of their demand that immigration be a part of the 2018 budget negotiations.
While House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders had hinged their support for last month’s budget caps deal on a commitment from Republicans to consider legislation salvaging the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, they’ve signaled they won’t hold a similar line heading into next week’s expected vote on an omnibus spending bill.
The apparent change in strategy has angered immigrant rights advocates in and out of Congress, who want the minority Democrats to use their rare leverage on the enormous government funding package — among the last must-pass bills of the year — to secure protections for the hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who unlawfully came to the country as children.
Democratic leaders want appropriators in both parties to drop all contentious “riders” for the sake of easing passage of the omnibus and preventing a government shutdown ahead of March 23, when funding expires.
KJ