The Democrats' critics on the left are demanding that the minority party use all of its leverage to stymie the Trump agenda, even if that means forcing a government shutdown. Fortunately, more mainstream party members can now use Trump's "Shithole"" comment as a pretext to drop their support for an immigration compromise in the hope of eventually coaxing Republicans into a better deal.

Meanwhile, the GOP had concluded that it would be unable to reach a long-term spending accord by the Friday deadline, which means that chances of a government shutdown have increased this week as yet another "stop-gap" deal is the only option. The government has been operating on short-term spending authorizations since the last two-year budget expired in September. The current short-term spending bill expires Friday at midnight.

Last week, members of a bipartisan senate group that had been negotiating a DACA compromise for four months said they'd reached an agreement in principle. Then the Washington Post  published its story about Trump's response to leaving measures protecting Haitian and El Salvadoran immigrants intact.

There also appears to be some resistance from the White House. This morning, Trump retweeted a tweet he had sent Monday accusing Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a member of the Democrat's congressional leadership, of lying about the "shithole" remark, an affront that, Trump suggested, could preclude a DACA deal, the Washington Post reported.

Should a deal be reached, the most likely outcome would be another short-term spending stopgap that would expire in mid-February. According to WSJ, Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Mark Meadows suggested that his faction would agree to a short-term compromise if there was no other alternative to avert a shutdown. Extending the deadline would require what is known as a continuing resolution.