With the federal government reopening after the weekend shutdown, political pressure is growing on Colorado Senators, Cory Gardner and Michael Bennett, to start supporting immigration reform. Several activist groups targeted the pair of lawmakers after they voted to end the shutdown, which many advocates believed was the best way to force a resolution to the issue of undocumented immigrants who were children when they came to the US.
Nicole Melaku, the executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said she was outraged and disappointed that Bennett and Gardner backed down when many other Democrats and Republicans did not. The political heat is likely to have more of an impact on Bennett than on Gardner.
A Senate Democrat, Bennett joined his fellows in voting against a spending bill in a bid to try and gain the upper hand in talks over immigration. But, he and others relented on Monday and gave their approval to a short-term deal that provides the government with funding through to 8 February. The stance puts him at odds with some of the more hard-line members of his own party.
California Democrat, Senator Kamala Harris, who was against the funding measure, said that Dreamers were made a promise by the US government and it was the time this promise was finally kept. Senate Democrats gave their support in return for a promise to hold a vote on the deferred action issue by Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell.