WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Saturday issued the following statement after President Trump offered protections for Deferred Action for Children Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients in exchange for $5.7 billion for his wall along the southern border, in an effort to end the government shutdown that is now in its 29th day and is the longest in U.S. history. 

“I’m confident that Democrats and Republicans can reach a compromise on immigration. But that can’t happen with 800,000 desperate federal workers being used as ransom. An immigration bill will take time to get right, and the President needs to end his temper tantrum and just open the government. My kids’ food isn’t getting inspected next week and they shouldn’t be put at risk any longer. The sooner Republicans end their shutdown, the sooner we can sit down and work out a sound immigration bill,” said Murphy. 

Today marks the 29th day that the federal government has been partially shut down. As of January 12th, this has been the longest government shutdown in history. Nine federal agencies have been shut down since December 22nd, 2018 with about 800,000 federal workers either furloughed or working without pay. 

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