Protesters Have Now Turned on Chuck Schumer, Descend on His Home After Massive Shutdown Loss
It appears the left is eating itself over the issue of illegal immigration.
Prompted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s capitulation on the government shutdown, advocates for the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program protested Tuesday night outside his Brooklyn home.
Many DACA supporters believe Schumer did not do enough for young illegal immigrants when his party battled the GOP during budget negotiations.
The shutdown began Saturday when Democrat and Republican leaders failed to reach an agreement over the Obama-era executive order.
Senate Democrats at first demanded that DACA be included in the spending deal, but GOP leaders argued it wasn’t necessary, as DACA isn’t set to expire until March.
Following a three-day standoff, Schumer and numerous other Democrats finally agreed Monday to a short-term spending deal.
Altogether, 81 senators voted for the spending bill and 18 senators — all Democrats — voted against it. The vote tally far surpassed the 60 votes needed to pass a budget deal through the upper chamber.
Monday’s agreement, however, did not address the status of DACA, leaving ardent supporters of the program livid. A Facebook group was promptly created to organize a demonstration outside of Schumer’s residence.
Huge groups of protesters congregated around Grand Army Plaza and then marched toward the New York Democrat’s home in Brooklyn, according to Fox News.
Video that captured the event as it unfolded recorded protesters chanting, “If Chuck won’t let us dream, we won’t let him sleep.”
The entire effort was meant to push Schumer and Democrats further to the left on immigration, despite the fact that the party is already in full support of keeping Dreamers, illegal immigrants under the DACA program, in the country.
Immigration-rights advocates felt betrayed when the Senate minority leader agreed to a spending deal that did not address the DACA situation, many of them convinced President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t keep their word — GOP leaders promised a vote on DACA in a few weeks time as part of their spending deal compromise.
Many of the chants outside Schumer’s home were spoken in Spanish.
The Working Families Party, a far-left political group founded in New York, also took part in the event, demanding legislative passage of DACA.
The Schumer protest highlights the tricky terrain the minority leader is forced to navigate when it comes to DACA and government shutdowns. He did not want his party to be blamed for a shutdown of government services, but he also wanted a win on the immigration debate.
Following the three-day shutdown, Senate Democrats eventually caved into making a deal with the GOP, but the deal included no guarantees on a DACA bill, just a promise to address the issue in the future.
“When you’re the minority party, you can’t force a policy change just by tying it to a budget crisis where money is needed to keep the doors open. You don’t have the power to do that. Ultimately you are going to fail,” explained “MediaBuzz” host Howard Kurtz.
In a widely derided interview, former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz characterized the win for Democrats as “potential for momentum” on DACA — a statement that essentially means nothing.
The debate began when Trump announced last year that he would be rescinding the DACA executive order created under former President Barack Obama. However, Trump has expressed a willingness for a legislative fix for the program, giving lawmakers six months to pass legislation before it expires.
Many GOP congressmen are also in support of keeping DACA, wanting to use the issue as leverage for greater immigration control, including funding for construction of a wall on the southern border.
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