Vice President Pence declared Monday that Democrats "failed" in their efforts to shut down the government in order to extract concessions from Republicans on immigration.

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Pence spoke at a news conference in Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a three-nation Middle East tour.

The vice president accused Democrats of making unreasonable demands that needlessly threatened crucial government operations.

"A minority in the United States Senate chose to shut down the government, denying our soldiers benefits and wages that they earned, denying government services, just to advance an issue pertaining to illegal immigration," he said.

Democrats were pushing Republicans to pass protections for certain young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children as part of a government-funding package.

"Now that the government is reopening, Congress can get back to work advancing the president’s agenda," Pence said.