Pressure is growing in Washington on whether the House will agree to fund the Department of Homeland Security without attaching it to President Barack Obama’s executive Action on immigration. The deadline to fund the DHS is Friday at midnight. On Wednesday a proposal, crafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to fund the department through September and thus forestalling any shut down, passed the Senate 98-2. However, the bill could face opposition in the House, where Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has not been willing to say whether he would bring the bill to a vote.
Any shutdown could have devastating effects here in New Mexico where thousands of DHS employees could be expected to go to work without pay. KSFR's Zelie Pollon spoke with the Albuquerque Journal’s Washington correspondent Michael Coleman.