Much to the dismay of the Democratic Party, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday that there will be no deal made regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2017.
Congress is currently wrapping up for the year and will not be returning to work until January.
“No, we’ll not be doing DACA this week. That’s a matter to be discussed next year. The president has given us until March to address that issue. We have plenty of time to do that,” McConnell told Fox News.
Following the Trump administration announcing that they would be ending the controversial program earlier this year, a March deadline was set for Congress to address it.
Democrats aren’t willing to wait however, and have been pushing for a DACA fix to be worked into a government funding bill. The funding must be passed by Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
The issue has become so heated that Senator Bernie Sanders’ former press secretary Erika Andiola, herself an illegal immigrant, is currently jailed and on a hunger strike after a sit-in at Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Carlos Curbelo’s offices on Friday.
Andiola and the seven other arrestees refused to cooperate with law enforcement, including providing their names and fingerprints, until Senator Schumer and Representative Curbelo “publicly confirm they have the votes to block any spending bill without a Clean DREAM Act.” Three of the eight arrested have since given their information and been released, Andiola and four others remain imprisoned.
When asked by reporters on Tuesday if he would be fighting for the DACA fix to be included in the government spending bill, Schumer avoided providing a direct answer.
“I’m hopeful that we won’t get to that. I’m hopeful that they’ll put something — [a] bipartisan proposal with both [the] DREAM [Act] and border security in the bill,” he said.
