To Avoid A Shutdown, Democrats May Have To Abandon The Dreamers

The government is at risk of shutting down this Friday if no spending bill is passed in Congress, and that many people worried, especially those who are in the military or who are at risk of being deported, like Dreamers.

One of the major issues facing this passage of a new spending bill is the Dreamers program, something that the Democrats have tried to get Congress to protect for months. The Dreamers program consists of over 700,000 people who came to the United States as kids but are undocumented immigrants.

That's a major hurdle facing this next spending bill and it's the major thing that's preventing Democrats from keeping the government open. They want a part of the bill to help Dreamers stay in this country and possibly become United States citizens.

President Trump initially tried to end DACA back in September. It was an action signed by President Barack Obama to give work permits to undocumented immigrants who arrived as children and were spared from deportation. A California federal judge blocked part of the termination of DACA just last week, meaning many DACA recipients were allowed to renew their status as Dreamers. Justice Department is appealing that ruling, and if they are successful, it will most likely mean the end of DACA and the Dreamers, and they'll probably get deported back to Mexico.

Unfortunately for Democrats, the reality is starting to set in quite soon. Protecting Dreamers and DACA seems to be coming to that foregone conclusion where them being blamed for shutting down the government will be justified. I understand these kids were innocent kids who came to the United States with their parents and have called home ever since. But in the eyes of the Republicans and especially in Donald Trump, they believe that these Dreamers are just as guilty of being here as the parents who brought them. That's what they believe. That's why they're not going along with any Democrats' ideas that this will be put into the spending bill. They don't care. They care about American interests.

In fact, just last week, a group of senators led by Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) appeared to have a deal to allow Dreamers a chance to become United States citizens, and would increase border security. It fell down the drain after White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller asked Trump to go against it. He did, and it fell out, so there's now no real hope for the Dreamers, not unless there's some surprising bill that comes up before the shutdown.

The fact of the matter is, in order for the government to stay open, the Democrats will have no chance but to cut the DACA deal from it. They don't have the numbers to do it, and it's unfortunate, and it sends a simple message to these Dreamers: You're not Americans, no matter if you came as children. I don't like saying that, but to many Republicans on these hill, they believe it. And they control the house. And what they believe is what we have to work with, whether we like it or not.

Right now, what I'm currently hearing is that there's no solid deal on the table to keep the government open, and DACA may be the one thing that's responsible for shutting it down. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says that DACA shouldn't be the thing responsible for the government shutdown but the fact of the matter is it is becoming more and more responsible. That's what the Democrats are still focusing on. If they don't understand the reality of what predicament they're in and the realization that they'll probably not save them, they might have to drop it entirely. There's not going to a be a lot of Republicans who are going to support keeping the Dreamers in.

I feel like these Dreamers have their backs against the wall, and I feel bad for them. They don't deserve to be in the middle of this, but they are, because Trump has no sympathy for them. He doesn't care about them. In his mind, they're not Americans, and much as I like to disagree with him, he's right. We want to protect them, Democrats want to protect them, but I don't think they'll have the numbers to do it. It's like in one episode of Season 21 of Survivor when Chase wanted to protect Brenda because he trusted her and felt he could work with her. However, he realized he didn't have the numbers to do it and eventually voted with the majority to vote out Brenda. I feel like that's what the Democrats are going to have to do in this situation.

They don't want to vote with the majority but the Republicans have the numbers on their sides and they're against the Dreamers. Democrats are going to have to fight this battle another day. For now, in order to keep the government open, one party is going to have to cave and in this case, it'll have to be the Democrats and they'll have to sacrifice the Dreamers as a result. It's not fun, I feel bad for the Dreamers, but in government, you can't always be too comfortable and the Democrats became victims as a result.