--- title: How Trump Complicated the GOP Plan to Avoid a Shutdown description: The talks to fund the government and avert a shutdown don't have anything to do with immigration. canonical: https://time.com/5136498/trump-shutdown-congress-daca/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-06T23:24:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:56:55.885Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Threatened A Shutdown Over Immigration. But It Has Nothing To Do With Immigration og:description: The talks to fund the government don't have anything to do with immigration og:url: https://time.com/5136498/trump-shutdown-congress-daca/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d5fb904d01c4a0a/6988fada97cdff76fc6b4320/gettyimages-915020294.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump Hosts Law Enforcement Round Table On MS-13 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Threatened A Shutdown Over Immigration. But It Has Nothing To Do With Immigration twitter:description: The talks to fund the government don't have anything to do with immigration twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d5fb904d01c4a0a/6988fada97cdff76fc6b4320/gettyimages-915020294.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Threatened a Shutdown Over Immigration. But It Has Nothing to Do With Immigration > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=35fefdf0-876f-4e4e-8c6a-c9d492fbbaf4&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump Threatened a Shutdown Over Immigration [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Threatened a Shutdown Over Immigration](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Nz2vbIPL.m3u8) (1:04)  _Published 2018-02-07. On Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a crucial vote in Congress to keep the government open past this week, President Donald Trump startled lawmakers by saying he’d “love to see a shutdown” if Democrats refused to cede ground in the debate over immigration_ by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Feb 6, 2018 11:24 PM UTC On Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a crucial vote in Congress to keep the government open past this week, President Donald Trump startled lawmakers by saying he’d “love to see a shutdown” if Democrats refused to cede ground in the debate over immigration by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Feb 6, 2018 11:24 PM UTC On Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a crucial vote in Congress to keep the government open past this week, President Donald Trump [startled lawmakers](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/us/politics/government-shutdown-trump-immigration.html) by saying he’d “love to see a shutdown” if Democrats refused to cede ground in the debate over immigration policy. Alarming words, yes, but there’s one issue: the talks to fund the government and avert a shutdown don’t have anything to do with immigration. And Republicans want to keep it that way. For the fifth time since September, lawmakers are preparing to vote on a continuing resolution: a temporary budget measure that keeps the government open for short period — often a few weeks — rather than for the entire fiscal year. (This is generally seen as bad policymaking; lawmakers refer to it derisively as “kicking the can down the road.”) It’s been just [fifteen days](http://time.com/5108781/government-shutdown-2018/) since Congress passed the last spending bill, and that one came only after a weekend-long government shutdown brought on by Senate Democrats irate at the lack of progress in reaching an immigration deal. This time, though, immigration has no direct role in the budget debates on the Hill. The crux of the matter is spending caps: an increase in government spending limits on both military and nonmilitary funding. It’s been a thorn in the side of this polarized Congress for some time — Democrats have repeatedly called for increases in non-defense appropriations — and if a deal is reached, lawmakers could move forward in passing a more permanent budget solution. This was apparently lost on Trump, who, at the Tuesday White House meeting on gang violence, said a shutdown was a viable options if Democrats did not acquiesce to his demands for stricter border security. “We don’t need a government shutdown on this,” Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Republican, attempted to assure Trump, according to pool reports from the meeting. “You can say what you want,” Trump responded. “We are not getting the support of the Democrats.” The Democrats, meanwhile, were baffled. “His comments are totally divorced from reality,” one senior Democratic aide told TIME. In remarks to reporters on Tuesday before Trump placed himself in the middle of the budget talks, leaders of both parties said they were encouraged by the progress being made. “Senator Schumer and I had a good meeting this morning about a caps deal,” an uncharacteristically chipper Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to reach an agreement…. We’re on the way to getting an agreement, and getting it pretty soon.” Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, said shortly thereafter that he was “very hopeful” about an imminent compromise. “From the very beginning of the budget debate, Democrats have made our position in these negotiations very clear,” Schumer said. “We support an increase in funding for our military and an increase in funding for middle-class programs. The two are not mutually exclusive.” On Tuesday evening, the House of Representatives prepared to vote on a stopgap resolution that would keep the government open until March 23 and increase military funding through the end of the fiscal year. The Senate would likely expand the bill to raise nonmilitary funding as well. Of course, none of this is to say that the matter of immigration isn’t looming over Capitol Hill. Lawmakers have just one month to find a legislative replacement for the Obama-era executive program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which Trump repealed in September and protects immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The failure to make progress on the issue is what [impelled Democrats](http://time.com/5112795/government-shutdown-ends-liberal-activists/) in the Senate to refuse to pass a spending bill last month, leading to the temporary shutdown. They were eventually assuaged by a promise from McConnell to address the issue on the Senate floor before the March deadline, and have little desire to relive last month’s shutdown drama. “I’ll simply repeat what I’ve said: once we’ve established that the government is going to be open, we’ll then go forward with an immigration debate,” McConnell said on Tuesday. “There’s no secret plan to push this in any direction. The Senate’s going to work its will.” Unless, of course, Trump chooses to involve himself. ## Transcript [00:00] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [00:05] Frankly, I'll go a step further. If we don't change the [00:09] legislation, if we don't get rid of these loopholes, where [00:11] killers are allowed to come into our country and continue to [00:15] kill. Gang members and we're just talking about MS13, [00:18] there are many gangs. Members that we usually don't [00:20] mention. If we don't change it let's have a shut down. We'll [00:24] do a shut down and it's worth it for our country. I'd love [00:28] to see a shut down if we don't get this stuff taken care of. [00:32] So we have to strengthen our borders, not by a little bit but [00:34] by a lot. We are so far behind the time and by the way, The [00:38] world is laughing at us because they can't believe these [00:42] policies, they don't have any, I can name 15 of them right [00:45] now, no other country in the world has what we have, and [00:49] we're gonna get it stopped and And if we have to shut it [00:52] down because the Democrats don't want safety, and [00:56] unrelated, but still related, they don't want to take care of [00:58] our military, then shut it down. We'll go with another [01:03] shutdown. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5136498/trump-shutdown-congress-daca/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5136498/trump-shutdown-congress-daca/"},"headline":"Trump Threatened a Shutdown Over Immigration. 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