Sen. Bernie Sanders: Shutting down government ‘the right thing to do’

Sen. Bernard Sanders said Sunday shutting down the government was “the right thing to do” in order to take a stand on what will happen to young illegal immigrant “Dreamers” in the ongoing immigration debate.

“I think from a moral perspective it was the right thing to do. And that is to say to these 800,000 young people, we are not going to allow them to be subjected to deportation,” Mr. Sanders, Vermont independent, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Senate Democrats recently mounted a filibuster of a short-term government funding bill, demanding that a solution for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program be part of the deal.

The fight resulted in a partial shutdown of the federal government for three days. Democrats ultimately relented and lawmakers agreed to fund the government through Feb. 8, kicking the immigration debate down the road.

Mr. Sanders said that the recent stopgap nature of federal budgeting hinders long-term planning in areas like the military.

“We are a $4 trillion government. There are areas where we should be spending more money, areas where we should be spending less money,” he said. “But you cannot simply spend in every division of the government the same amount as you spent last year.”President Trump recently laid out his own immigration proposal that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants, end family-based chain migration, and provide some $25 billion for a U.S.-Mexico border wall and infrastructure.

Mr. Sanders said he has “serious concerns” about some parts of the president’s proposal, saying the main focus should be ensuring that Dreamers secure legal status and a path to citizenship.

“Where the bad part comes is the idea of a wall, which I thought was a great idea in the 15th century when China built the Great Wall. Not so smart today when we have technology that is much more effective,” he said.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of debate about how much money we should spend on border security,” he said.