Senate Democrats plan government shutdown over DACA

Senate Democrats plan to filibuster a four-week spending bill passed by the House late Thursday, a stall tactic that will shut down the government at midnight Friday. Democrats are protesting the lack of a deal to fix the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors. Lawmakers initially wanted to approve a DACA fix as part of the government funding package but couldn’t reach a deal by the shutdown deadline. The DACA program will not end until March, giving lawmakers another six weeks to come up with a solution. But Democrats want to force a decision now, a move Republicans have criticized as a false deadline. “Democratic senators’ fixation on illegal immigration has already blocked us from making progress on long-term spending talks,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “That same fixation has them threatening to filibuster funding for the government.” Forcing a shutdown is risky: Republicans faced widespread public criticism for using the same tactic in 2013.