Democrats have power to protect Dreamers

The Republicans have the numbers in Congress to pass just about any bill they propose, without any input from or concessions to the Democrats. The Democrats in the Senate have no one to blame except themselves, as they had previously voted that bills could pass with a simple Senate majority rather than the 60 votes that had always been required.

But the Democrats do have power in one area. The power to shut down the government. They should announce right now that they will vote to allow a shutdown of the government at the end of the year unless the Republicans vote on legislation to permanently grant Dreamers (the DACA act), the right to remain in the U.S., a proposal favored by an overwhelming majority of voters, and a majority of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Republicans claim that there is no need to act now since the deadline to act on DACA is March 31, 2018. Do you have any confidence that Republicans will in fact propose this legislation, and that Trump will not veto it, or threaten to veto it unless Congress also approves funding for his wall?

This is the only time that the Democrats will have leverage to pass DACA. With the significant majority of voters in both parties favoring a DACA bill, which gives permanent status to Dreamers, even the Republican threat that the public will blame the Democrats for any government shutdown is hollow. Democrats must explain that it is the Republicans and/or Donald Trump who by their failure to act in good faith necessitated this action.

Until the midterm elections, this is the only power the Democrats have.

Robert Frankel

Schaumburg