Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., railed against his colleagues for once again striking a deal on a massive $1.3 trillion spending package that will fund the government through September without including relief for young, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
“I’m voting against the omnibus because I’m against the continued deportation of hard-working immigrants and families in communities like mine in Chicago,” Gutierrez said in a statement. “It would be like me voting against the Iraq war and then turning around and voting for military spending to execute that war.”
There was little expectation that text providing a pathway to citizenship for recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would be included as multiple prior attempts to forge a deal have failed.
After the budget agreement outlining spending caps for the omnibus passed in February without resolving the status of some 800,000 DACA recipients, Democrats admitted that they had little to no leverage left to pressure Republicans into passing something before the end of the year. Prior to March 5, roughly 122 Dreamers per day lost their permits. That number is expected to have exponentially increased this month as more permits were set to expire. And more than 20,000 are waiting for their permits to be renewed.
“For all of the talk from Republicans and Democrats since September about rescuing the Dreamers and preventing their deportation, the final omnibus budget gives Trump money for his wall and we get nothing for it,” Gutierrez said. “Immigrants and Latinos got run over by the omnibus and we have nothing in return.”
The omnibus includes $1.6 billion for border security, but doesn’t allow for money to be spent on a concrete wall, according to a Democratic aide. Roughly $641 million of that total will go to 33 miles of new fencing and $1.3 billion to border security technology.
