‘DREAMERS’ DISAPPOINTED CONGRESS DEFERRED DACA DEAL

Young “Dreamers” brought to the United States illegally as children were angry and disappointed on Monday after the US Congress approved a temporary spending bill to end a three-day government shutdown without a deal to shore up their shaky legal status.

US Senate Democrats accepted the bill to restore funds to keep the government running for three more weeks in exchange for a promise by Republicans to hold a debate on the status of the young immigrants.

“It’s irresponsible of everyone in Congress not to pass something,” said Jovan Rodriguez, 27, who was brought to the United States from Mexico by his parents when he was 3 years old. “I’m really disappointed.”

End to protections

Last year, Republican US President Donald Trump ordered an end by March to protections provided to the estimated 700,000 Dreamers under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (Daca), an executive order put in place by then Democratic President Barack Obama.

Under the program, young people who qualified were allowed to live openly in the United States, working and attending college and shielded from deportation.

A court has put a temporary stay on Trump’s order.

After news of the spending bill, some Dreamers and their supporters briefly blocked the entrance to Disneyland in California.

Marches and civil disobedience were planned in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington and elsewhere.

‘Cowardice’ of senators

Democratic lawmakers had initially vowed to oppose any bill to fund the government without an agreement to restore the Daca protections.

But Republicans refused to budge, instead tying the spending bill to a program favored by Democrats that provides health care to poor and working class children.

“Our members, including my brother Jonathan, are in greater danger today because of the cowardice of US senators,” activist Cristina Jimenez, executive director of group United We Dream, said in an e-mailed statement.—