Hi there,

In this chaotic news cycle it may be tempting to tune out, but we hope you won’t—only an informed and engaged public can defend democracy. In these times of deep political polarization we need news that goes beyond play-by-play headlines, news that goes to the heart of each story by asking people to tell their own stories of abuses of power and injustice in their own words. If our journalism is important to you, please donate today. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

Senators Wrap Four Days of Open Debate with No Deal on Immigration

HeadlineFeb 16, 2018

The U.S. Senate has wrapped up four days of open debate without advancing a single measure on immigration. In four separate votes Thursday, senators failed to reach the 60 votes needed to move forward on legislation that would have protected 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants known as DREAMers—while further militarizing the U.S.-Mexico border. The failed votes came after President Trump blasted a bipartisan bill as a “total catastrophe” and threatened a veto. This is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York.

Sen. Chuck Schumer: “There’s only one reason why the Senate will be unable to reach a bipartisan solution to DACA: President Trump. President Trump created this problem by terminating the DACA program last August. Since that decision, President Trump has stood in the way of every single proposal that could become law.”

A measure supported by President Trump got the least number of votes—just 39 out of 100. It would have sharply curtailed U.S. immigration quotas and expanded border militarization funding by $25 billion, while providing a lengthy path to citizenship for DREAMers. Unless Congress passes an immigration bill, hundreds of thousands of DREAMers could see their DACA status begin expiring as early as March 5—although two federal courts have ruled the Trump administration cannot end the program.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top