The recent government shutdown was a Democrat-led stunt that prioritized the interests of illegal immigrants over the interests of American citizens.

Senate Democrats filibustered the proposed government funding bill — which contained nothing they objected to — because it lacked protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, people who entered this country illegally as young children.

That filibuster is why Republicans, who hold a 51-member majority, could not pass the bill themselves.

Senate rules require 60 votes to break a filibuster. The bill could not be passed without Democratic support.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt) office emailed a statement to the Cynic included in a Jan. 22 article stating: “I am very disappointed that the Republicans chose to shutdown the government.”

He then expressed a desire for Republicans to negotiate with Democrats.

That statement is a total distortion of reality and is quite out of touch given that Sanders voted no on the funding bill that would have kept the government open.

The fact of the matter is that Democrats chose to block government funding — which included funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program — simply because the bill did not make DACA into law.

DACA is widely supported among Americans, but shutting down the government to pass it gives the impression that the Democratic Party cares more about illegal immigrants than the American citizens who would be harmed by a shutdown

This presumably led Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-Ny), and a majority of Senate Democrats to vote yes on a funding bill to open the government, receiving nothing in exchange other than a promise from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky), to hold a future vote on DACA.

Hopefully McConnell’s promise to hold a vote on DACA will come to fruition.

Passing it would be a move supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans.

But to hold government funding hostage over the issue of illegal immigration is shameful and indefensible.