Gillibrand, Espaillat Urge GOP to Back Dreamers Or Risk Government Shutdown

Two Democratic lawmakers from New York are vowing to fight for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, and they’re not ruling out a government shut-down to do it.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Adriano Espaillat teamed up Sunday to pledge they won't vote for any year-end budget bill, unless it includes protections for these so-called "Dreamers."

President Trump decided to end DACA in March unless Congress passes a replacement — which could put the roughly 800,000 Dreamers at risk of losing their protected status and being deported. Many of those people do not meet the White House's criteria to reapply for DACA.

Gillibrand said bipartisan support exists to protect Dreamers, and quoted House Speaker Paul Ryan from September when he said he believed in a legislative solution and called Dreamers “kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don’t know another home.”

She also offered a warning to her colleagues across the aisle if they fail to act.

“If Republicans refuse to do the right thing and protect Dreamers in this long-term spending bill, they are going to cause the government to shut down,” said Gillibrand, “because I'm not going to vote for a long-term spending bill that doesn't protect our Dreamers. Period, it's that simple.”

Espaillat cited recent polls that show three quarters of Americans — and nearly 60 percent of Republicans — support protecting Dreamers. He joined Gillibrand at her office Sunday along with nearly a dozen Dreamers.

The event came just days after the Senate passed sweeping tax reform legislation. Both Espaillat and Gillibrand offered pessimistic projections that the reconciliation process between the Republican-led House and Senate negotiators will yield a better tax bill for middle class New Yorkers.

“It's getting late kind of early, as Yogi Berra said, but it's not over until it's over,” said Espaillat.

“If the American people stood up and fought as hard as they could, we might have a second shot at it,” Gillibrand added, “It needs to be a huge call to action to the American people to say, ‘this is going to harm my family and do not do this.’”

Monday, Dec. 4, 2017 1:45 p.m.: This article was updated to acknowledge that many current DACA recipients do not meet the White House's criteria to reapply for the program.