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Immigration reform advocates are unhappy as Democrats hold up border security and defense funding until they get amnesty for a large group of illegal immigrants.

“The American government is officially being held hostage by the leadership of the Democratic Party, which is demanding unconditional amnesty for at least 700,000, and perhaps as many as 3.4 million illegal aliens,” charged Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

The continued failure of the Senate to approve a Continuing Resolution (CR) funding the operations of the federal government will result in a shutdown of many government agencies at midnight. These government agencies serve important needs of the American people.

“Let’s be very clear about who is responsible for this shameful and reckless hostage crisis,” said Stein. “It is the leadership of the Democratic Party that is placing the demands of illegal aliens ahead of the interests of the American people and their own constitutional obligations to fund the government.

“Funding the government is an urgent priority. Addressing the situation of DACA recipients, or even a much larger pool of illegal aliens in the United States, is not. It most certainly should not take precedence over keeping the government functioning, nor should it take precedence over delivering on countless broken promises Congress has made to the American people that our nation’s immigration laws would be enforced.”

This unconscionable government shutdown is being led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who, in October 2013, declared that shutting down the government to achieve narrow political aims was itself unconscionable. “We believe strongly in immigration reform. We could say, ‘we’re shutting down the government, we’re not gonna raise the debt ceiling until you pass immigration reform.’ It would be governmental chaos,” Schumer said a little more than four years ago. Moreover, Schumer explicitly compared these sorts of strong-arm tactics to a hostage situation. “You cannot negotiate with a hostage situation like that. You cannot negotiate with a gun to your head,” he stated.

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“Chuck Schumer is doing exactly what he said he abhorred just a few years ago and he is doing it on behalf of people who are here because they, or their parents, knowingly violated the laws of the United States. If they take the extraordinary step of shutting down the government, the Democratic leadership will send a very clear message: Not only don’t the interests of the American people come first; their interests, their needs, and their security come dead last,” concluded Stein.

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