Story highlights Republican leadership is navigating a politically perilous debate

Democrats are trying to make the decision as painful as possible for the GOP

Washington (CNN) As Congress grapples with a six-month window to save a program that protects young undocumented immigrants, another date is looming in the back of politicians' minds: November 6, 2018.

Foremost in the debate over President Donald Trump's decision to end DACA, the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, is the fate of the roughly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants currently enrolled in the program, who could lose their ability to work and study in what for many is the only home they've ever known without fear of deportation if Congress doesn't act by March 5.

At the same time, the raw politics of the issue are front and center, especially the potentially disastrous consequences for Republicans in swing districts if the DACA program were to end.

While plenty of Republicans serve in ruby red districts where voters are strongly against what they perceive as an "amnesty" program for the population, who were brought to the US as children, there's also a potentially majority-shifting group of Republicans up for re-election in 2018 in areas with high populations of Latino voters and places where the program remains popular.

And Democrats are certain to try to make the debate over DACA as painful as possible for those Republicans.

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