With dueling bills unlikely to fly, Durbin optimistic about compromise to reopen government
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has long supported giving legal status to "Dreamers," migrant children brought into the U.S. as children.
But he rejected attempts to sweeten a Republican bill to reopen the government by including provisions for some Dreamers as "unacceptable."
Surrounded by unpaid air traffic controllers at an Aurora University event Wednesday, the Springfield Democrat said, "what they've suggested is not going to really solve the problem - it's going to make it worse."
The Democrats have their own bill to fund the government temporarily through Feb. 8, although Durbin acknowledged neither policy was expected to survive votes Thursday.
"That's where we come together and say, 'Okay, we're not going to get it done with the two orginal bills - can we come up with a third bill? I think we can," Durbin said.
The partial federal government shutdown in its 34th day has roiled the country, with unpaid FBI agents going to food pantries, TSA officers calling in sick and air pollution at sites like the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook going unmonitored.
Republican leaders have accused the Democrats of laxity on security by refusing to comply with President Donald Trump's priority of funding a border wall with Mexico.
Democrats like Durbin say they want to negotiate after the government opens.
Trump had sought to end the Defered Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program serving Dreamers; the Republican bill would provide legal status for three years and introduce new restrictions, Durbin contended.
"DACA and the Dreamers are not the reason for the shutdown at all," Durbin said. "This shutdown should end immediately and they're not standing in the way of that."