NEW YORK — Congressional Democrats on Wednesday dug in on their threats to reject any government funding bill that isn’t paired with protection for thousands of young immigrants — a hard-line stance celebrated by liberal groups who have shrugged off risks of a government shutdown.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said there’s “very, very strong” sentiment among his party’s lawmakers to oppose GOP-drafted legislation that would only keep the government’s doors open for four weeks past a looming Friday deadline. Schumer did not say his caucus was entirely unified, but the rhetoric signaled growing chances that a stop-gap measure could come up short of votes in the Senate and federal agencies could begin closing their doors Friday at midnight.
“The overwhelming number in our caucus have said they don’t like this deal and they believe if we kick the can down the road this time we’ll be back where we started from next time,” Schumer told reporters. “So there’s very, very strong support not to go along with their deal.”
The hardening stance reflects the influence of an emboldened Democratic base clamoring for a showdown with a president many on the left view as racist and untrustworthy. The fight over the fate of the “dreamers” — some 700,000 people who were brought to the U.S. as children and are now here illegally — is increasingly becoming a test of Democrats’ progressive mettle, surpassing health care or taxes as the top year-two priority for the liberal base.
“It needs to be very clear for vulnerable Republicans as well as for Democrats who do not act this week that there will be political consequences,” said Cristina Jimenez of the immigrant activist group United We Dream. “The progressive movement who are going to be the boots on the ground for the Democrats to regain power” in November’s midterm elections, she added, “are going to hold them accountable if they don’t come through.”
On Capitol Hill, Democrats are being urged to let federal funding expire unless Republicans and President Donald Trump agree to extend the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Protesters have rallied at offices of Senate Democrats, threatened primary foes for those who don’t push hard enough for an immigration deal and promised to brand those deemed to have fallen short “the deportation caucus.”
The Trump administration was “out in front, advancing their agenda and they were basically getting away with it,” said Frank Sharry of America’s Voice, an immigrant rights group. “Then they picked a fight with well-organized, American kids. They picked the wrong fight.”
“Everything we’ve seen from this administration has been this effort to remove people of color and streamline the process for white people,” said Angel Padilla of the anti-Trump group Indivisible. “This week is an opportunity for Congress to reject that racism.”